Inside Istanbul's 'plague islands'
Video by Ed Scott-Clarke and Joseph Ataman, text by Tamara Hardingham-Gill, CNN • Published 8th May 2020
(CNN) — Like many places around the world, Turkey has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.
Over 100,000 cases have been registered in the country, with the vast majority recorded in Istanbul.
But this isn't the first time Turkey's largest city has been devastated by an outbreak of disease.
Around 540 CE, Istanbul, known as Constantinople at the time, fell victim to one of the worst outbreaks of the Black Death, resulting in the deaths of thousands of people each day.
More:Inside Istanbul's 'plague islands' | CNN Travel