H&M’s first store in Turkey will be located at the Forum Istanbul shopping center, one of the largest shopping centres in Turkey, in the city’s Bayrampaşa district. Turkey will be the 38th country where H&M has a presence.

The store has a sales area of approximately 2,300 square metres and the opening is planned for November 2010.

We are very pleased to open our first store in Turkey. It is an interesting market with a large, young and fashion-conscious population, which offers great potential for future expansion. Since long, we have business relations with Turkey through our production office. Now we are looking forward to offering customers in Turkey fashion and quality at the best price, says Karl-Johan Persson, CEO of H&M.

H&M currently has 2,066 stores around the world. Its 2,300-square-meter Istanbul store will join other retailers in one of the newest arrivals to the city’s booming shopping-center scene.

Forum Istanbul also houses the originally Swedish IKEA furniture store and outlets of numerous other retail chains.

Address:
H&M Istanbul
(Forum Shopping Mall)
Kocatepe Mahallesi
Paşa Caddesi
Bayrampaşa – Istanbul

www.forumistanbul.com.tr

As Istanbul readies for summer, one of the first permanent ice museums in a warm climate opened its doors April 23 National Sovereignty & Children’s Day, set to be a cold “heaven” for those who want to escape the city’s heat.

The Magic Ice Museum was realized with an investment of $20 million by the Lofoten Trading Company from Norway, where ice museums have become an art.

The Magic Ice Museum covers 1,400 square meters. Visitors will wear special Eskimo-style clothes and enter the museum through an ice tunnel. The museum’s interior temperature will be kept at minus 5 degrees Celsius in both winter and summer.

Some 70 tons of ice were brought from the River Torne in Sweden’s Jukkasjarvi region to make the museum’s ice statues, while its walls and tunnels were made with 100 tons of ice provided by Istanbul. The museum was conceived by the designers and sculptors of the Ice Hotel in Sweden.

The first section of the museum explains the Vikings’ 880 visit to Istanbul to visitors, who are provided with information through writings on sheets of ice. The information states that the first Vikings, who came to Istanbul over the Black Sea, used the name “Miklagard,” which means “protected lands,” for the city. A Runic writing, which belonged to a Viking soldier named Halvdan, has been found on the walls of the Hagia Sophia Museum in Istanbul.

The museum also holds an eight-meter boat and a house made of ice, as well as a map of the first Vikings’ travels.

The two other sections of the museum include information about Scandinavian nature and an ice vitamin bar, where visitors are offered fruit juice in ice glasses.

The “Magic Ice” museum is located inside the Forum Istanbul shopping mall in Bayrampasa district near the Bus Station (Otogar), next to the Turquazoo Aquarium.

Istanbul is doing its best to stimulate culture with new museums, such as the openings of the Panorama 1453 History Museum and the History of Islamic Science and Technology Museum. The city will establish a water museum, an Akeopark and a planetarium in the near future.

Address:
Magic Ice Istanbul
Kocatepe Mah. Pasa Cad B1 Blok No:2
Istanbul Forum Avm
Bayrampasa – Istanbul
34045 Turkey

Open:
Mon – Sun: 10:00 am – 10:00 pm

Website: www.magicice.com.tr

Turkey’s first Turkuazoo giant aquarium in Istanbul will be operational in 2009 and is located in the new Forum Istanbul in Bayrampasa. Forum Istanbul will be one of Europe’s largest shopping centers and the first shopping center in the world with a mega aquarium. Turkuazoo offers family fun for those wishing to spend time in the underwater world, promising an unforgettable experience.

Turkuazoo is a Turkish subsidiary of Global Aquariums BV. The next generation aquarium in Istanbul, Turkey, is designed specifically to appeal to its Turkish audience and will entertain visitors with its rainforest, flooded forest, and tropical seas zones, a predator tank and jellyfish discovery area. The exciting 90m long Marinescape SeaTube, one of the world’s longest underwater tunnels, will offer visitors a panoramic view of marine life.

The concept of the site plan design of 17 million Euro aquarium project has been considered as “fish skeleton”. The total project will be 55,000 m2 big, With an impressive 7,000 m3 total tank capacity, making it the largest aquarium in Europe.

The large aquarium will house 25,000 sea creatures. Visitors will be able to view the aquarium’s residents by the end of September. Among them will be the 2.5-metre-long tiger sharks, as well as smaller members of the sea predator family. Braver visitors who would like to see the sea creatures not just from the other side of the glass but from up close will be able to dive and swim with them.

The water in the aquarium will come from the Sea of Marmara, the inland sea that connects the Black and the Aegean Seas. The aquarium’s first residents will start being brought to Istanbul by trucks and airplanes in the next few weeks.

Turkuazoo is located 5 km away from Ataturk International Airport, near the motorway and railway transportation systems in Florya, which is at the southwest coast of Istanbul where 11 million people live in. Besides, IDO sea busses have been considered for visitors, who want to reach aquarium by seaway.

Now you can see how it feels like to be at the bottom of the ocean, Turkuazoo Istanbul.

For more information visit www.turkuazoo.com

These are just a few of the most largest aquariums in the world where you can easily break into the mesmerizing secrets of the underwater world.

World’s Largest Aquarium – Georgia Aquarium, Atlanta, a wonderful home for more than 100,000 animals of 500 different species (notable specimens: whale sharks, beluga whales, manta ray) and with a capacity of 8.1 million US gallons (31,000 m³) of marine fresh water.

World’s Second Largest Aquarium – Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium, part of the Ocean Expo Commemorative National Government Park located in Motobu, Okinawa, Japan; capacity: 7,500-cubic meters (1,981,290 gallons) of water; one of the few places where visitors can see a great variety of sea creatures including sharks and manta rays. Imagine the aquarium from the video below which was shot at the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium in Japan Kuroshio Sea – 2nd largest aquarium tank in the world.

The second largest aquarium in Europe, Oceanarium in Lisbon, Portugal .
The Lisbon Oceanarium has a large collection of marine species — birds, mammals, fish, cnidaria and other marine organisms. With an impressive 1,000 m2 and 5,000 m3 tank with four massive 49 m2 acrylic windows on its sides.

The Aquarium of Genoa in Italy is the third largest in Europe. With an area of 10,000m2 area, 70 water tanks offering a spectacular structure and an emotional trip across the immensity of the oceans. Built for Expo 92, the Aquarium of Genoa is an educational, scientific and cultural centre. Its mission is to educate and raise public awareness as regards conservation, management and responsible use of aquatic environments.

The Turkuazoo giant aquarium is a great addition to Istanbul and a definite must for aquarium enthusiasts.