I omit also the Houses of _Galata_, built by the _Genoese_. The _Greeks_ who profess Christianity, have lost their six hundred Churches, and have not one left, of any Note, except the Church belonging to the Monastery, where their _Patriarch_ dwells. The rest are either entirely ruin’d, or prostituted to the _Mahometan_ Worship. The _Francks_ have about Ten, the _Armenians_ only Seven. The _Jews_ have upwards of Thirty Synagogues, which are scarce sufficient to hold the numerous Congregations of that populous Nation. The Reader will view in a better Light the antient _Monuments_ of _Constantinople_, when he shall peruse the _Antient Description of the Wards of the City_, finished before the Time of _Justinian_, and annex’d at the End of this Book. When this _Treatise_ was first wrote, _Constantinople_ was so fully peopled, that those who inhabited the _Fora_, and the broad Ways were very straitly pent up; nay, their Buildings were so closely joyn’d to one another, that the Sky, at the Tops of them, was scarce discernible. And as to the Buildings in the Suburbs, they were very thickly crowded together, as far as _Selymbria_, and the _Black Sea_; and indeed some Part even of the neighbouring Sea, was cover’d with Houses supported by Props under them. For these, and many other _Monuments_, was _Constantinople_ antiently renown’d; none of which are remaining at present, except the _Porphyry_ Pillar of _Constantine_, the Pillar of _Arcadius_, the Church of St. _Sophia_, the _Hippodrom_ now in Ruines, and a few _Cisterns_. No Historian has recorded the _Antiquities_ of Old _Byzantium_, before it was destroy’d by _Severus_; altho’ it is reasonable to believe, there were very many of them, especially if it be consider’d, that it long flourish’d in those Times of _Heroism_, when Art and Ingenuity were in high Estimation, and when _Rhodes_, no ways preferable to _Byzantium_, was beautify’d with no less than three thousand _Monuments_. ’Tis easy to form a Judgment, from the Strength and Proportion of its outside Walls, what beauteous Scenes of Cost, and Workmanship were contain’d within. This we know however for a Certainty, that _Darius_, _Philip_ of _Macedon_, and _Severus_, demolish’d many of their _Antiquities_, and when they had ravag’d the whole City, that the _Byzantians_ made a noble Stand against the Forces of _Severus_, with Statues, and other Materials, which were Part of the Ruines of the City. I have already in Part accounted for the Ruines of these _Curiosities_; I shall at present briefly mention some other Causes which contributed thereto; the Principal of which was the Division of their Emperors amongst themselves; frequent Fires, sometimes accidentally, sometimes designedly occasion’d, not only by their Enemies from abroad, but by their own Factions, and civil Dissensions among themselves; some of which burnt with a constant Flame three or four Days together. These Fires were so raging and terrible, that they did not only consume what