EmoriaCustom art prints and star maps
Maps · Collection 01

Istanbul poster, drawn from the real map

41.0082°N / 28.9784°E · Türkiye

This is the only plan in the collection where a few hundred metres of water separate two parts of the world. The two shores have the same streets and the same density all the same.

You choose the framing, the palette and the words of the caption. The work is drawn from real data, then printed to order in the workshop closest to you.

Compose my Istanbul poster
What the map shows

A strait on the diagonal, three shores, two continents

Follow the strait from top to bottom. It runs down almost straight, widens as it approaches the sea that fills the bottom of the sheet, and two bridges cross it, far apart. On the left-hand shore, a second body of water pushes west in a funnel: a natural harbour, which detaches a headland between itself and the sea to the south. That headland is where the whole history begins. On the right-hand shore, the city starts again exactly the same, with its own centres and ring roads, and nothing on the map announces the change of continent.

Read on

The walls that held that headland for a thousand years have no layer at all: it reads only through the water bordering it on three sides. Nor does the aqueduct, nor the great covered market, which is only a roof, nor the two buildings the whole world associates with this city. The forests to the north, by contrast, hold: wide and continuous, they close the top of the sheet on both sides of the strait. A map of this city does not show you its monuments; it shows you why people fought over the place.

Compose your own

What suits Istanbul

The palette

Water makes the entire composition here: it enters at the top, runs down on the diagonal and opens at the bottom. Take it frank and deep, it is what has to carry that diagonal, and do not fear its dominance, it is the subject. The built fabric opposite should stay a single pale value on both sides of the strait: their likeness is what makes the cut interesting, and colouring the two shores differently would explain what the print already says. The green of the northern forests, though, deserves to be frank: it is the one breath on the sheet.

The framing

Portrait, the strait on the diagonal and the sea at the bottom. The setting turns on one thing: both bridges must be on the sheet, and they are far apart. Come one step closer and the second leaves through the top, which gives you a strait crossed only once, that is to say a different city. The third bridge, further north, is outside the frame and will stay there. To the west, the conurbation continues for tens of kilometres: it can leave at no cost, as the research file says itself.

The caption

The title, one line under it, the coordinates. The name of a district, the name of a landing stage, the year of a crossing: on a map where the two shores look alike, the caption line is what says which one was yours.

The sheet
Subject
Istanbul, Türkiye
Palette
Bosphore et or
Map style
Clean and Detailed
Layout
Overlay
Typeface
By hand
Framing
Zoom 10.8
Fade at the edges
15%
Format
Portrait
The palette of this poster

Bosphore et or

Sixteen inks, in the configurator’s order. It is not in the catalogue, but you will find it in the palette library, filed under its material.

  • Background
  • Water
  • Greenery
  • Built-up areas
  • Roads
  • Buildings
  • Text
  • Motorways
  • Main roads
  • Secondary roads
  • Minor roads
  • Streets
  • Service roads
  • Paths
  • Railways
  • Borders
Compose with this paletteStart from it to make your own

Opens the colour workshop with these 16 inks in place: change one, keep the rest.

It will wait in your account, ready for any piece.

What the drawing tells

Three dates that explain the city

5th centuryA peninsula with water on three sides

The historic peninsula, ancient Byzantium and then Constantinople, is surrounded by the natural harbour to the north, the strait to the east and the sea to the south. From the beginning of the fifth century, under Theodosius, it was walled on the side that remained, the land. Three sides given by geography, one to build: that is exactly what the map shows, and it is the definition of an impregnable position.

447Six thousand six hundred and fifty metres of wall

The land wall of Theodosius II runs six thousand six hundred and fifty metres, and its second line of defence, created in 447, remained a reference in military architecture. No layer of our background knows city walls. That line, which decided the fate of the city for a thousand years, is the great absence on this print: it runs where the headland ends, and it is for the eye to guess it.

532A thousand years between two masterpieces

Hagia Sophia was designed by Anthemius of Tralles and Isidore of Miletus and built between 532 and 537. The Süleymaniye, Sinan's masterpiece, followed between 1550 and 1557, on the same headland, a thousand years later. Neither has any shape on a map: they are buildings, and our background draws none. What survives on the sheet is their shared address, that piece of land between three waters.

Before ordering

The four questions people ask

Can I choose any place, any date?

Yes. The search covers the whole world, from a capital to a hamlet. For the Sky collection, any date works, past or future: the sky is calculated.

What sizes do you offer?

From 21 × 29.7 cm to 84.1 × 118.9 cm, that is A4 to A0, portrait or landscape depending on the material. Every size is shown with its price in the editor.

What materials do you offer?

Four, from the barest to the most dressed.

  • Matte fine art paperA 200 gsm art paper with a deep matte finish: the bare print, to frame as you please.
  • Wooden hangersThe print suspended between two wooden hangers, ready to hang, in the spirit of studio posters.
  • The classic frameThe print mounted under acrylic glass in a slim frame, assembled by hand, delivered ready to hang.
  • Framed canvasThe piece printed on canvas, stretched over a wooden stretcher bar and set in a frame: a gallery presence.
How long does it take?

Allow 1 to 4 working days for making, up to 7 for hand-assembled frames and canvases, then 1 to 6 working days in transit with standard delivery.

Digital editions are available immediately: the file of your piece is emailed to you as soon as you order.

All the questions

Your Istanbul

The ferry you took in the morning, the shore you came home to at night, the bridge you avoid at the wrong hour. The strait is the same for everyone. The side you lived on is not.

Compose my Istanbul poster