Unlike much of Los Angeles region, much of Istanbul is on older rock (Miocene, > 5 million). In the south part of Istanbul near Marmara Sea, near the Blue Mosque, is an Egyptian obelisk that was brought from Egypt and put there about 1600 years ago. I asked a carpet merchant next door whether it had toppled in the 1509 or 1766 earthquakes and he said no. Of course, one would want to check that, but I suspect it is true because the obelisk looks to be granite and had no sign of any cracks in it; you would expect damage if it toppled. This obelisk would thus limit the strong ground motion that has occured at this location. I think HW said some of the minarets, which are taller for their diameter, did topple, but I need to ask her again.

Speaking of carpet merchants, I was walking around Istanbul on a weekend 4 years ago and had just come up the hill and was hot and thirsty and the merchant at the same shop invited me in with perfect English, offered me some tea, then started bringing out carpets, and ended up selling me one when I had no intention of buying. However, HW liked it and our 25th wedding anniversary is coming up, so I went back to same shop and they sold me one about 3 or 4x more expensive than I intended. Istanbul has some of the best salesmen in the world.
Chris