The construction of Miniaturk, the
first miniature park in Istanbul, began in June 30, 2001.
With great fanfare, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan opened the park to visitors on May 2, 2003.
Miniaturk covers a total area of 60,000 square meters. Its
model area is 15,000 sqm, making Miniaturk the world's
largest miniature park in respect to its model area.
Miniaturk also boasts 40,000 sqm of open space, 3,500 sqm
of covered area, 2,000 sqm of pools and waterways, and a
parking lot with a capacity of 500 vehicles.
The park contains 105 models done in 1/25th scale. 45 of
the structures are from Istanbul, 45 are from Anatolia,
and 15 are from the Ottoman territories that today lie
outside of Turkey. Additional space was reserved for
potential future models. The infrastructure was built
taking into consideration the needs of potential additions.
Therefore, Miniaturk will continue growing, modeling, in a
sense, planned urbanization.
