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 sixth Hill is just as long as the _Promontory_ is broad, which is
widen’d upon this Hill to the Breadth of two thousand four hundred
Paces. The City Walls shoot over the Ridge, and the North Side of it
down to the Sea Shore. You descend gradually from the Top of it within
the Walls; without the Walls it lies upon a Level, and is join’d to the
Continent by a Field in the Suburbs. The broadest part of it is not
above eight hundred Paces, the narrowest but four hundred. It descends
with a treble Declivity; one on the left Hand of the _Promontory_, with
an easy Descent at South-east; another on the right falling to the Bay
Northward, which extends itself to the Distance of fifteen hundred
Paces. There are two lesser Hills, separated by a small Valley, which
run between them. At the Foot of that lesser Hill which stands nearest
to the City Wall, there is an _Aqueduct_. Between this Hill and the
Bay, there formerly stood the Church of the _Blachernæ_, which has
been recorded in the Writings of many Historians. The Foundation of
this Church was remaining, when I first arrived at _Constantinople_.
From the Foot of this Hill, which stands above the Church I have
mention’d, there rises a Spring, whose Waters are convey’d thro’ arch’d
subterraneous Passages into the City, where, appearing above Ground,
they flow constantly into a Marble Cistern. That Side of the sixth Hill
which lies Eastward, is as long as the Hill itself; but does not, in
all parts of it, fall with the same Descent. For the Descent varies,
according as the Valley adjoining lies higher or lower. Where the
Valley lies upon the Level, the Pitch of the Hill rises to the Height
of six hundred Paces; where it does not lie so low, ’tis not above five
hundred Paces high; where it rises higher, not above four hundred. Nor
does this Side of the Hill shoot only Eastward, but does also, on the
right Side of it, project Northward, and on the left Side of it extend
itself full South-west. The Plain on the Shore, which lies between the
Foot of the Hill and the Bay, in the narrow part of it, is not above
eight hundred Paces broad, I mean in that Place where the Church of the
_Blachernæ_ stood formerly, as did also a _Triclinium_; but farther on
it winds round into the third Valley, and widens much more.
CHAP. XVII.
_Of the Valley which divides the_ Promontory _from the seventh Hill_.
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