THE MIRROR
OF
LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION.
| Vol. 10. No. 285]. | SATURDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1827 | [PRICE 2d. |
CASTLE OF THE SEVEN TOWERS AT CONSTANTINOPLE
1. Triumphal Arch of Constantine.
2. First Tower of the Pentagon.
3. First Marble Tower.
4. Second Marble Tower.
5. Angle of the Pentagon with the fallen Tower.
6. Double Tower.
7. Dedecagonal tower.
8. Square Tower of entrance to the Prison.
9. Round Tower falling to decay.
10. House of the Aga, &c.
11. Garden of the Aga's House.
12. Cemetery of the Martyrs.
The celebrity of the Seven Towers in European countries,though strongly savouring of romance, is no joke—it being theprison where the Turks confine the ministers and ambassadorsof the powers with whom they are at war. At the present moment thisengraving will doubtless be acceptable to our readers; especiallyto such of our City friends as have recently been induced tospeculate on the heads of ambassadors of the allied powers; and afew days since it might have served as a scale for theirwagering the "price of blood."
With the early account of this castle we shall be brief. It iscited in the history of the lower empire from the sixth century ofthe Christian era, as a point which served for the defence ofConstantinople. The embrasures of some of its towers, as well as ofthe towers that flank the ramparts of the town from the southernangle of the castle to the sea, blackened as is supposed by theGreek fire, announce that it was the principal bulwark of the cityon the side of the Propontis, in the latter times of the empire. In1453, Mahomet II., after an obstinate siege, gained possession ofConstantinople and the Castle of the Seven Towers, fear opening tohim one of the gates of the latter. The Turks relate that 12,000men perished in this siege; and the marks of the ravages of theartillery are still visible, for, as usual, the conqueror did notconcern himself about repairs. Since that time the place has beenthe arena of many remarkable events, among which was the tragicalmurder of the caliph Osman the Second. This has been followed up bymany bloody executions; and at every turn gloomy sentiments, andthe proud names of Turks and Greek princes, inscribed on the walls,speak the sad fate of those by whose hands they were traced. Towersfilled with irons, chains, ancient arms, tombs, ruins, dungeons,cold and silent vaults, a pit called the well of blood,[pg362] the funeral cry of owls and of vultures, mingled withthe roar of the waves—such are the objects and sounds withwhich the eye and ear are familiarized in these dreary abodes,according to poor Ponqueville, the traveller, who speaks fromexperience—within the walls. All this is a sorrypicture for the
"—Gentlemen of England,
Who live at home at ease."
But the state purposes to which the Seven Towersare appropriated boast