Istanbul in the 1970s, as people from Anatolia migrated to the city to find employment in the many new factories that were built on the outskirts of the sprawling metropolis. This sudden, sharp rise in the city's population caused a large demand for housing, and many previously outlying villages and forests became engulfed into the metropolitan area of Istanbul. Istanbul is located in north-western Turkey within the Marmara Region on a total area of . The Bosphorus, which connects the Sea of Marmara to the Black Sea, divides the city into a European, Thracian side—comprising the historic and economic centers—and an
Church of St. Mary of the Spring (Istanbul) Church of St. Mary of the Spring (Istanbul) The Monastery of the Mother of God at the Spring (full name in , pr. "Moni tis Theotóku tis Pigis"; Turkish name: "Balıklı Meryem Ana Rum Manastiri") or simply Zoödochos Pege (, "Life-giving Spring") is an Eastern Orthodox sanctuary in Istanbul, Turkey. The present church, built in 1835, bears the same dedication as the shrine erected in this place between the end of the fifth and the beginning of the sixth century. After several renovations, this building was destroyed in the first half of the fifteenth century by the Ottomans. The complex