The Antiquities of Constantinople: With a Description of Its Situation, the Conveniencies of Its Port, Its Publick Buildings, the Statuary, Sculpture, Architecture, and Other Curiosities of That CityGilles, Pierre
History
The Antiquities of Constantinople: With a Description of Its Situation, the Conveniencies of Its Port, Its Publick Buildings, the Statuary, Sculpture, Architecture, and Other Curiosities of That City
Gilles, Pierre
Istanbul (Turkey) -- Antiquities; Istanbul (Turkey) -- Description and travel; Turkey -- Antiquities
fifteenth five Foot and a half. The Sixteenth the same. The Seventeenth
five Foot and ten Digits. The eighteenth six Foot and a half. The
Nineteenth five Foot and four Digits. The Twentieth six Foot and a
half. The Twenty first, where the _Shaft_ of the Pillar begins, six
Foot and four Digits high. The _Pedestal_ consists of six Stones. The
uppermost of which is four Foot nine Inches high. The Second is the
same height. The Third four Foot. The Fourth four Foot six Inches. The
Fifth the same. The Sixth and last is four Foot high. It has in all
fifty six Windows, and two hundred thirty three Steps of two kinds.
For some rise in square, others in circular Windings, after the Manner
of some Shell-Fish. You ascend the _Pedestal_ by five square Winding
Steps. Every Winding has at the Top of it a small Floor, which leads
you from one Winding to another. The first and second Windings have
six Steps each; the third eight; the fourth and fifth, nine each; the
lowest of them all, which lies level with the Threshold of the Door,
is ten Digits high, twelve Inches broad, and two Foot nine Inches
long. The other square Windings are like this, and the Floor at the
Top of each of them is two Foot nine Inches square. Upon the fifth
Winding stands the _Shaft_ of the Pillar, the first Steps of which are
ten Digits high; near the Wall they are a Foot broad, in the Middle a
Foot and nine Inches, and in Length they are two Foot nine Inches. The
Steps above them, are all of them, nine Digits high. The Inside of
the _Shaft_ of the Pillar measures twenty eight Foot in Circumference.
The Wall which encloses the Steps, in the lowest Part of it, is two
Foot and three Digits, in the highest, ’tis one Foot nine Inches thick.
If I should be thought too curious, in taking the Dimensions of every
Stone, this Character with more Justice belongs to that Man, (and yet
_Thucydides_ highly commends him for it) who by counting the Rows of
Bricks of which they were built, took the height of the Enemies Walls.
I was under some Apprehensions from the Savageness of the Inhabitants,
lest they should catch me dropping my Line, had I measur’d it without,
so that I lay under a Necessity of taking the Dimensions within; and by
joining the height of one Stone to the height of another, I discover’d
its Altitude. There are two Steps consisting of many Stones, which
first shew themselves from the Surface of the Earth. Above them is the
third Step, which is cut out of a Stone three Foot and four Digits
high, and thirty three Foot and a half in Circumference. Upon the Stone
which makes the third Step, stands the _Pedestal_. The first of the
five Stones of which it consists, from the Threshold of the Door, is
five Foot and a half high. Its Ornaments are a plain _Plinth_ three
Foot five Digits high, a small _Tore_ five Digits high, an _Apophyge_
with a _Reglet_ nine Inches, another _Reglet_ above it two Digits,
and a _Cornice_ engrav’d, which is nine Inches high. The _Frieze_, on
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