Istanbul daily tours – The earliest-known settlement in the area now known as Istanbul, was probably founded around 1000 BC. It’s name was Semistra. It was followed by a small fishing village, called Lygos. Lygos was settled on the European side. Then, around 700 BC colonists from Megara in Greece, founded the city of Chalcedon on the European shore of the Bosphorus.
Istanbul Daily Tours – Byzantium, comes after a Megarean colonist
The next name of the settlement – Byzantium, comes after a Megarean colonist, Byzas established his new colony. There is a legend that says that Byzas was the son of Poseidon and a nymph, daughter of Zeus and Io. Before he was leaving Greece, he asked the oracle at Delphi where he should establish his new colony. The answer he got was enigmatic – ‘Opposite the blind’. While he was sailing up the Bosphorus, he remembered the words of the oracle as he noticed the colony on the Asian shore at Chalcedon.
Then on the European shore he saw the small fishing village of Lygos. It was built on a magnificent and easily fortified natural harbour of the Golden Horn. Thinking, as legend has it, that the settlers of Chalcedon must have been blind to disregard such a good and strategic position, Byzas and his fellows settled their new town there and named it after its founder Byzas, Byzantium.
