The position of Lefkosia has been badly chosen, as it lies in the flat, and must always have been exposed to a plunging fire from an enemy posted upon the heights. It was fortified in the time of Constantine the Great, but in 1570 the Venetians demolished the old works and constructed the present elaborate fortifications. Although the walls are in several places crumbling into ruins, they are still imposing in appearance, and present a clean front of masonry flanked by eleven bastions, and entered by three gates, those of Baffo, Famagousta, and Kyrenia. The original ditch can be traced in various places, but the counterscarp and glacis have been destroyed; therefore the soil has washed in during the rainy seasons, and to an unpractised eye has obliterated all traces of the former important work. On the other hand, the disappearance of the glacis renders the height of the walls still more imposing, as they rise for thirty or forty feet abruptly from the level base, and at a distance maintain the appearance of good condition. It is difficult to imagine the reason which induced the Venetians to reproduce Lefkosia after they had demolished the original fortifications; but it is probable that they had already erected the cathedral before the expected Turkish invasion rendered the improved defences necessary. Although in the early days of artillery shell-fire was unknown, both the Turks and Venetians possessed guns of heavy calibre far exceeding any that were used in Great Britain until recent years. The marble shot which are still to be seen in Famagousta are the same which served in the defence of that fortress in 1571. These are nearly eleven inches in diameter, while in the fort of Kyrenia the stone shot are still existing, nineteen inches in diameter, composed of an exceedingly hard and heavy metamorphic rock. The long bronze guns which threw the smaller stone shot of from six to eleven inches, would command a far more extensive range than the interval of the heights which dominate Lefkosia; and even should battering have been ineffective at that distance against walls of masonry, the plunging fire would have destroyed the town and rendered it untenable. Traces are still visible of the Turkish approaches when the town was successfully carried by storm on the 9th of September, 1570, after a siege of only forty-five days. The short duration of the attack compared to the length of time required in the siege of Famagousta, which at length succumbed to famine, and not to direct assaults, is a proof of the faulty strategical position of the fortress of Lefkosia.