After taking a much needed respite at Mihrimah Mosque, we swung by to the nearby Theodosian Walls, mentioned briefly in this post.
Constantinople is situated on peninsula and surrounded by water on three sides; Emperor Constantine built a wall to protect the fourth side, the land portion. As the population of the city grew, the city boundaries needed to expand. Emperor Theodosius built a second set of walls (408-413 AD) during his reign.
These walls protected the empire from land attack by foreigners for centuries. In fact, they were never taken by a foreign power until the Ottomans came in 1453.
While none of the original Constantinian walls remain, parts of the Theodosian Walls are still intact and can be explored.
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| The walls aren't guarded or maintained, you can just climb right up, at your own risk of course. |
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| Up in one of the wall's parapets, the highest point of the wall. |
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| The walls, though crumbly, extend for quite a ways in either direction. |
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| Imagine being an invading army and having to fight people shooting arrows at you from up here. Terrifying. |
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| Ali wanted a picture, I told him he was an idiot to sit up there. |
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| The proudly waving Turkish flag. I asked what the flag symbolized, according to one legend, the moon and stars were reflected in the (red) blood spilt by Turkish (Ottoman) soldiers during a battle, and so the sultan adopted this as his flag. |
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One part of the wall was pretty treacherous to climb. No handrails, and a practically vertical incline, with each step being just one foot's width deep. It was not bad going up but coming down was not fun.
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| One part of the wall was closed off, and someone had made a cat shelter that was just swarming with cats! At least 20. |
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| This little baby kitty! Mrowr. |
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| I really don't understand what this is for, I just hope the cats are able to leave when they want. |
Wow that rail-less staircase must have been super scary to climb! I almost got all sweaty and palpitation-y just thinking about what it might look like on the way up and down.
ReplyDeleteHow interesting that the wall isn't monitored in any way. You would think that as a cultural artifact and piece of history they'd want to keep tabs on it somehow. The graffiti and stuff kind of takes away from the experience...
That's what I thought too at first, but really, they have so many old buildings and crumbling walls everywhere, I think they just don't care anymore or don't have the budget to keep it all.
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