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 Bottom of the fifth Hill, on the Top of which stands the Tomb of
_Selymus_ the Emperor, as bounded partly by the Bay, and partly by an
Eastern and Western Valley, is four thousand Paces in Compass. The
Pitch of this Hill hangs so far over the Bay Northward, and the Pitch
of the fourth Hill lies so low towards the same Point, that the fourth
Hill seems to be a kind of Valley, situate between the third, and the
fifth Hill. For the fifth Hill does not join at Top, and continue the
Ridge of the _Promontory_ as other Hills do, but being of an equal
Heighth with it, shoots to a great Distance beyond it running as far
Northward, as does the Foot of the fourth Hill. It has a Descent on
three Sides of it; one to the North, the Steepness of which the Reader
may learn from hence, that altho’ it is very near the Heighth of the
fourth Hill, which is above a thousand Paces high, yet the highest
Ascent of this Hill comes nearer upon the Line, than that of any other
Hill, to the lowest Ascent from the Bottom; for you ascend thro’ a
little Valley, no more than three hundred Paces high to the Top of it.
This Valley is form’d by two small Hills adjoining to the Shore of the
Bay, upon which, at about four hundred Paces distance, you discover
some Stone Steps, belonging to a Foundation of a _Caravansera_, built
by the Emperor _Selymus_. This Northern Side of the Hill has four
small Hills jetting out of it, three small Valleys running between
them, which rise from the Top of the Hill, and are situate at such a
Distance from the Plain upon the Shore, that two of them touch the Wall
which stands upon it; the other two are a hundred Paces from it. The
Plain upon the Shore is in no Part of it narrower than it is at the
Foot of this Hill; for to the Distance of a thousand Paces, it does
not exceed a hundred Paces in Breadth, and in some Places not fifty.
Two of these Hills are very steep, so that the Buildings you see upon
them, as tho’ they were in danger of falling, are all underpropp’d,
and the Inhabitants have been oblig’d to cut Windings in the Rocks to
moderate the Descent. The other two are less Precipitate, the Valleys
which enclose them not lying so deep. The Side of the Hill which shoots
Eastward is one thousand four hundred Paces in Length, and two hundred
in Breadth, and its Altitude two hundred Paces upon the Perpendicular.
The Height of the Side of it, which falls Westward, shelves into a
different Depth, according as the Valley sinks. Where it descends into
a Level Plain, it advances its Top to the Height of five hundred Paces.
In other Places it rises no higher than three hundred, with a very
moderate Ascent. The Side of the _Promontory_ which points Southward,
situate behind the fifth Hill, ends in the Plain of the Valley, which
divides the _Promontory_ from the seventh Hill. In other Places it
falls with a more confined, and sometimes with a more expanded
Descent, upon a small thick Hill, which hangs over the fifth Valley;
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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