Built on an area of 495,000 square meters in the Bayrampaşa district, Forum Istanbul comprises 175,000 square meters of leased area plus an IKEA store measuring 30,000 square meters and a Real supermarket covering about 15,500 square meters. The development will also include public spaces and parks where festivals, as well as cultural and sporting activities, will be organized.

Brand names such as Tepe Home, Saturn, Teknosa and Bimex will cover 11,500 square meters. The stores Boyner, YKM, C&A, M&S and Zara will also be included in the shopping mall, which will have a parking lot with room for 5,500 vehicles.

In addition, Forum Istanbul will be home to a giant Ferris wheel that will be as tall as the Bosphorus bridge, along with a bowling alley, restaurants, an IMAX movie theater, an ice-skating rink and playrooms for children.

The biggest attraction of this giant shopping center is Turkuazoo an aquarium housing 10,000 different species and constructed on 8,000 square meters of land. Turkey’s first large aquarium, Turkuazoo will also make Forum Istanbul one of the world’s first shopping centers to include an aquarium. Visitors will be able to walk through one of the world’s longest underwater tunnels, experiencing a 270-degree view that will allow them to feel at one with the sea creatures without having to put on a wetsuit and dive in.

Forum Istanbul is unique, adding a new dimension to the existing retail market in the region. The scheme offers a contemporary urban experience, interspersed with boulevards, piazzas, avenues, courtyards, and monumental buildings. The interplay of these elements produces streets with sweeping views, narrow lanes with shadow and contrasts of scale and public squares with different spatial qualities. A public area with spectacular landscape, it is suitable for festivals, concerts, markets and sports events. Signage, fountains, sculptures and art will also be a part of the project.

Forum Istanbul had a spectacular opening show by laser-projecting the work of Turkey’s 15 top living artists across Istanbul’s iconic buildings and 25 giant Forum Istanbul tulip logo balloons illuminated the skyline, Multi’s Marcel Kokkeel, Board member and Chairman Multi Mall Management and Levent Eyuboglu, MD Multi Turkmall, signaled the start to a spectacular evening of art projected onto the Topkapi Palace, Istanbul Train station, AKM in Taksim Square and other key locations to hundreds of thousands of local residents and tourists. Multi donated the show to the city of Istanbul and announced the opening on 17 November of Forum Istanbul – the largest shopping and excitement center in Europe.

Forum Istanbul will become an important landmark, attracting shoppers and visitors from all over Istanbul.

Forum Istanbul Shopping Center
Kocatepe Mahallesi,
Şehir Parkı Caddesi 34045
Bayrampaşa – İstanbul
For more info visit www.forumistanbul.com.tr or follow forum on facebook

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.