WALLS OF CONSTANTINOple. 375 All these cisterns were supplied by means of an aqueduct, part of which still exists as left by Soliman the Magnificent, who repaired the original structure raised by Adrian and renewed by Valens and one of the Constantines. A double tier of forty arches, composed partly of brick and partly of stone, joins two of the hills on which the city is built. The lower arches are about twenty-four feet by twelve; the upper are a little higher and narrower. edifice, together with a similar one not far from Belgrade, forms part of the stupendous work by means of which the capital is supplied with water from that place. This The walls of Constantinople have been renowned since the age in which they were first erected, and enough still remains to satisfy the curiosity of a traveller, whose attention is attracted, as he coasts in a caique from Seraglio Point towards the Propontis, by a multitude of ancient pillars embedded in the masonry, which present their round ends towards the sea and appear to have been used instead of stones for the foundation of the high wall that flanks the city for about six miles, extending as far as the "Seven Towers." This is very irregular, and bears marks of having been built and repaired at different times. The castle of the 376 WALLS OF CONSTANTINOPLE. Seven Towers defends the point where the wall of Theodosius protecting the city on the western side meets that on its southern; it was raised by Mohammed the Second, and long used as a prison, when it was the cruel policy of the Porte to incarcerate the ambassadors of powers against whom it declared war: within it are two pillars, relics of the "Golden Gate," which Theodosius built in honor of his victory over the rebel Maximus. Of the seven towers three are now reduced to the height of the wall; and one of the remaining four serves as a watch-tower; in another, whose summit commands an extensive view of the surrounding country, is the Bloody Well. The name indicates its nature. It was used as a place of destruction, into which the innocent, perhaps as often as the guilty, were cast alive to meet a lingering death. The triple wall of Theodosius, once extending five miles from the Seven Towers to the Golden Horn, is fortified by bastions at irregular distances varying from fifty to a hundred yards, and by a ditch running parallel to it, twenty-two yards in breadth. The outer wall is much injured, being in many places reduced to the level of the top of the ditch. A space of fifteen yards separates it GATES OF THE CITY. 377 from the second, twenty-five feet high; behind which the third and innermost rises with a slight additional elevation. The ivy covering these three walls communicates to them a venerable appearance consistent with their known antiquity. There were originally forty-three gates to Constantinople, of which twelve opened towards the Golden Horn; thirteen towards the Propontis; and eighteen faced the land. Of the last named, only seven survive the city's glory. The first is the Seven Towers', or Golden, gate, above referred to. The next is called Selivree kaposee; just opposite to which, under some tall funereal cypresses and close to the road, in a cemetery extending for three miles under the city-wall, a marble stone, surmounted by a pasha's turban, records the name of the famous Ali pasha. The inscription is *These are called Yedee kalah kaposee, or Seven Towers' gate; Selivree kaposee, or Selivria gate; Mevlikhanah kaposee, or Monastery gate; قلعه قپوسي سلوري قدوسي موج ; Top kaposee, or Gun gate طوب قدوسي ادرنه قدرسي اكري قيو ایوان سراي VOL. I. Adernah kaposee, or Adrianople gate; Ivan serai, or the Ivan palace gate. 2 A 378 TOMB OF ALI PASHA. as follows: "Here lies the head of the formerly renowned Ali of Tepelini, governor of the sanjak of Janina, who for more than fifty years aspired to independence in Albania." Close to it are interred the heads of his sons Salih, Wulee pasha of the Morea, and Mokhtiar of Thessaly, and of his grandson Mahmood; all of whom were put to death, together with the arch-rebel, in the year 1237 of the Hegira, corresponding to 1822 of our era. Their heads were purchased at a high price from the public executioner and deposited here by a friend of Ali. The breach entered by Mohammed II, when he took the city on the 29th of May, 1453, is marked by two shots placed over the fourth gate, which is thence designated Top kaposee, The gate of the gun; but of the breach itself no trace remains, except the partial filling up of the ditch by the débris of the wall. The stranger's gratification in visiting the localities connected with that day attains its acme when he reaches the spot where the last of the Constantines fell under the sword of the Moslim conqueror. Between the fifth and sixth gate, inside the walls, an oblong stone building with arched windows bears the name of Belisarius's palace; but marble embrasures and indications of four distinct stories prove it to be of a much later date than that name would assign to it. Among the ruins of this edifice, in the time of Mohammed II., a child is said to have found the famous diamond now in the sultan's possession. From the last gate on the western side, which borders on the Golden Horn, the Fanar, or Greek quarter, extends nearly the whole way to Seraglio Point, a distance of four miles along the bank, making the circumference of Stambol proper about fifteen miles. Having completed the circuit of the city, we visited the Etmeidan, or "Flesh field,*" the scene of the destruction of the janissaries in 1826. Of this little remains in the state in which it existed before the day of slaughter: the barracks where the rebels collected their forces were annihilated by the artillery, and the land is now exposed to sale. The feelings with which one traverses the site of such a tragedy are indescribable. On that memorable occasion the Etmeidan became an Aceldama ; the Flesh field, (name of ill omen!) a Field of blood. Its arid soil drank in on one day the blood of more than twenty thousand of our fellow-creatures, and every blade of grass is now rich with the manure of human gore. * So called from a market for meat once held there. |