Seafarer's Travel and Adventure: September 2011

Funchal ( IPA : / fũ'ʃaɫ / ) is a town in the Portuguese capital of nearly 104,000 inhabitants of the Autonomous Region of Madeira . Funchal is the island's largest city, was founded in 1421 by João Gonçalves Zarco and was elevated to thestatus of city by King Manuel I in 1508 .

Today Funchal is a modern city, situated in a unique area, where the geological structure creates a natural amphitheater that surrounds the entire city, starting from the port and going up to 1200 meters of its higher slopes. This natural protection attracted the first settlers who formed the initial core of Funchal.

Capital of the island for more than five centuries, Funchal takes its name from the word func, which in Portuguese means fennel plant is very present on the island.

Part of the town of Funchal is contained in the nature reserve Ilhas Selvagens which extends for 160 km south of Funchal.(BY WIKIPEDIA)

Istanbul (Turkish: İstanbul), historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople^[3](see names of Istanbul for further information), is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province (municipality) had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010,^[1] which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largestmetropolitan area in Europe(if its Asian half is counted) after London and Moscow. The city in its administrative limits had 8.8 million residents counted in the latest Turkish census from 2000.^[2] Istanbul is a megacity, as well as the cultural, economic, and financial centre of Turkey. It is located on the Bosphorus Strait and encompasses the natural harbour known as the Golden Horn, in the northwest of the country. It extends both on the European (Thrace) and on the Asian (Anatolia) sides of the Bosphorus, and is thereby the only metropolis in the world that is situated on two continents. Istanbul is a designated alpha world city.

During its long history, Istanbul has served as the capital of the Roman Empire (330–395), the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire (395–1204 and 1261–1453), the Latin Empire (1204–1261), and the Ottoman Empire (1453–1922). When the Republic of Turkey was proclaimed on 29 October 1923, Ankara, which had previously served as the headquarters of the Turkish national movement during the Turkish War of Independence, was chosen as the new Turkish State's capital. Istanbul was chosen as a joint European Capital of Culture for 2010 and the European Capital of Sports for 2012.^[4] Istanbul is currently bidding to host the 2020 Summer Olympics.^[5] The historic areasof the city were added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1985.^[6]

The city covers 39 districts of the Istanbul province.^[(7http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Istanbul)