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
The first of these Ways rises to the Height of five hundred Paces, two
hundred of which from the Foot of the Hill are very easy of Ascent, the
other three hundred are very steep. The second _Road_ is six hundred
Paces high, a hundred of which rise through the lowest of the small
Valleys by a gentle Ascent, the next hundred are almost perpendicular,
so that you must climb them by Steps; the other four hundred rise
gradually to the Top of the Hill, which is sixty Paces in Breadth. This
Hill, on the Ridge of it, shoots Southward to the Distance of a hundred
and fifty Paces, quite from the Church of St. _Sophia_ to the _Porphyry
Pillar_. The other three _publick Ways_, from the Bottom of the Hill,
are for the first hundred Paces upon a gentle Rise, the next two
hundred are a mighty Declivity, so that you are obliged to ascend them
by Windings and Turnings; the remaining five hundred, up to the Plain
upon the Hill, rise moderately. I would observe farther, that on the
Side of the Clifts which project over the Bay, two small Hills jetted
out, one to the North, and the other to the East; both which uniting
form a little Valley, which is bounded on the East by a Hill which
rises eighty Paces in Height, and has in some Places very agreeable
Descents. This is the Reason that most part of the lesser Clifts, which
bear upon this Hill, stand to the East, and that the Side of the Hill
which looks Westward, is in some Parts of it more shelving than in
other: For its Eminencies falling into the lowest Plain in the Valley,
to the Length of three hundred Paces, from the Foot of the Hill up to
the Middle of it, are almost perpendicular, and from the Middle to the
Top they slope but little. As for those Hills which project over the
Head of the Valley, they are not above two hundred Paces high, often
of a different Ascent: For as the Valley rises, the Clifts seem lower.
Indeed all the lesser Clifts of this Hill have a double Descent; one
length-ways, and the other broad-ways: For those of them which stand
East and West are seated in such a manner, that they also lye to the
North. In short, all the Sides of this Hill, in the most steep Ascents
of them, are not above a Furlong in Height; in other Places they fall
into a moderate Declivity, and at the Bottom of them they gradually
enlarge themselves into a Plain. The upper Clifts at the Top of them
are half shelving, and half upon the Plain. The Plain adjoining to the
Sea, and dividing the Hill from the Bay, spreads itself into a Latitude
of three hundred Paces, but immediately widens again into a Breadth
of five hundred Paces, and so visibly enlarges itself, the farther it
extends itself into the Valleys.
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