the most famous of the gates between former East and West Berlin. The attached museum (Friedrichstrasse 43-45) gives some background with stories of successful and failed attempts to cross the checkpoint. Website: http://www.mauer-museum.com/. Telephone: 2537250 ...
Dolmabahçe Palace served as the administrative center of the Ottoman Empire from 1856 to 1887, and again from 1909 until the end of the caliphate in 1924. It was constructed on landfill (the name means ‘filled-up garden’) and took thirteen years to complete. In the early years of the Republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk used the palace as his summer residence. He died here in 1938.&n...
Saladin was a famous Sultan, most renowned for his role as leader of the Muslims during the bloody Crusades. He died in 1193 and his mausoleum is a low rise white building with a red dome. Contained within it is a walnut wood cenotaph containing Saladin’s body carved with intricate motifs representative of the Ayubbid Era. Also contained within, is a marble tomb gifted by Kaiser Wilhelm II o...
Like most major cities, Chicago experienced a large influx of Italian immigrants in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Italian immigrant population went from 1,357 in 1880 to a peak of 74,000 in 1930. They proliferated throughout the metro area, but the focus was around Grant Street on the Near West Side. By the 1930s, the neighborhood was home to a host of Italian resta...