ISTANBUL: Marmaray Tunnel Project
The $3 billion Marmaray Project in Istanbul, commenced in 2004, will consist of 48 miles of new railroad, 37 rebuilt train stations above ground and three new ones below, and eight miles of tunnel connecting Istanbul's western, European side to the Asian east. One mile will be immersed beneath the shifting bed of the Bosporus, it'll be the deepest such tunnel in the world, under 55 meter of water and 4.5 meter of earth. The hub of this tunnel system sits on one of the greatest historic treasures of the classical world. Unearthed in Istanbul's Yenikapi neighborhood, The Harbor of Theodisius dates back to the 4th century A.D.. The excavations undertaken here and onsite in Uskudar and Sirkeci have produced an archaeological splendor of remains from the Ottoman, Byzantine, Roman, Ancient Greek and Neolithic periods. Due to countless archeological findings the project is already delayed by six years, but parts of it have opened to the public like the tunnel under the Bosporus.