The Gold­en Horn (Turk­ish: Altın Boynuz or Haliç)[2] is a major urban water­way and the pri­ma­ry inlet of the Bospho­rus in Istan­bul, Turkey. As a nat­ur­al estu­ary that con­nects with the Bospho­rus Strait at the point where the strait meets the Sea of Mar­mara, the waters of the Gold­en Horn help define the north­ern bound­ary of the penin­su­la con­sti­tut­ing “Old Istan­bul” (ancient Byzan­tium and Con­stan­tino­ple), the tip of which is the promon­to­ry of Saray­bur­nu, or Seraglio Point. This estu­ar­i­al inlet geo­graph­i­cal­ly sep­a­rates the his­toric cen­ter of Istan­bul from the rest of the city, and forms a horn shape, shel­tered har­bor that in the course of his­to­ry has pro­tect­ed Greek, Roman, Byzan­tine, Ottoman and oth­er mar­itime trade ships for thousands[3] of years.