The Land Walls of Constantinople (part 1)

Hello everyone, I'm Robin Pearson and I'm here to show you what remains of the Byzantine land walls in Istanbul. The land walls stretch for four miles, over seven kilometres, from the Golden Horn to the Sea of Marmara. So it will take two videos to cover their entire length. Today in part one we will travel from the Sea of Marmara in the south to about halfway along the defences where the road Turgut-Ozal-Milet-Kedesi passes through the walls. The early 5th century was a desperate period for the Roman Empire. German tribes were marching widely across its lands and the Huns were building their power north of the Danube River. In 410 AD Rome itself was sacked by the Visigoths. This sent shockwaves across the Mediterranean world and the government in Constantinople responded by constructing a new set of walls. Though the city already had a defensive wall, the Praetorian Prefect Anthemius pushed ahead with plans to construct a sturdier set on higher ground some 1500 metres further west. Not only would this provide his capital with stronger defences, but it also greatly increased the city's ability to withstand a siege. The extra land enclosed by these new walls provided space for cisterns, farms, supply depots and room to house thousands of refugees. If the Goths or Huns came calling, Constantinople would now be ready for them. The new walls formed a robust defensive structure. The huge inner walls rose 12 metres into the air and were 5 metres thick. They looked down on the outer walls which were 8.5 metres high and 2 metres thick. Below them a small third wall hovered above a deep moat that could be flooded during a siege. Any attacker attempting to scale these walls faced an impossible task. At each stage of his climb he was intensely vulnerable to arrow fire and other missiles being thrown from above. Both inner and outer walls were studded with 96 towers at evenly spaced intervals to ensure that no section was left unguarded. What made this fearsome structure possible was the unique geography of Constantinople's position. Surrounded on three sides by water, the city needed only one land wall to protect it. The Romans could therefore pour resources into these defences, making them virtually impregnable. Many enemies would march to Constantinople over the next millennium, but few would actually attack the walls. What was the point? Three major armies did attempt to storm the land walls. The first two, the Avars in 626 AD and the Arabs in 717 AD, both ended in miserable failure. The third, by the Ottomans in 1453, succeeded, but only after the invention of gunpowder had begun to change the very nature of warfare itself. For a thousand years then, these walls kept the Roman state safe from threats that would otherwise have wiped it out. They are known today as the Theodosian Walls, named for the emperor who reigned during their construction. But he was a child at the time, and it is Anthemius' government who truly deserve the credit for this world-changing construction. After capturing the city, the Ottomans continued to use the fortifications, but once the walls became obsolete they were looted for building supplies. Most of the outer wall has now disappeared, and though time and earthquakes have done considerable damage, the inner walls are still largely in place. Attempts at restoration in the past half-century have been much criticised, but in places they preserve for us the shape and feel of the triple wall structure. We begin our walk along the walls in the south at the Sea of Marmara. This isolated tower shows us where the land and sea walls once met. You can see from the difference between the marble layer at the bottom and the bricks above that this tower was designed to withstand the waves. On the inside quite a complex ruin survives. You can climb up here and explore the remains of storerooms and cisterns, all of which suggest that this tower was turned into a stronghold or sea pavilion at some point in the later Byzantine period. We'll now begin our walk along the outside of the land walls. As you can see, this section is set in a pleasant park, and only the big inner wall has been preserved. It's also easy to spot signs of modern restoration. Here number one of the ninety-six towers has been well looked after, particularly compared to number two over here. During the thousand years that the Byzantines manned these walls, they were forced to constantly repair and rebuild them, as did the Ottomans after that. Each tower is an amalgamation of generations of work. The fun for us is to look for Roman inscriptions indicating who the last emperor was to work on this part of the fortifications. You can see the Greek letters stretching across the length of tower number one. This inscription belongs to the famous Basil II and his brother Constantine VIII from the 11th century. It says Tower of Basil and Constantine, faithful emperors in Christ, pious kings of the Romans. At the foot of the tower you'll also see a small gate. This is sometimes called the First Military Gate because the purpose of it was to allow troops access to the rest of the fortifications, as opposed to allowing civilians into the city. Remember this is the base of the inner wall, so in Byzantine times the outer wall and moat would have been where we can now stand with a camera. Also note the Christogram above the gate. Only little pieces of decoration like this have survived along the lengths of the walls. Further along this section, tower number four also has a Roman inscription from either Romanus II or III, 10th or 11th century, who claims to have built this tower from scratch, which seems plausible given the tower is quite a different shape from many of its squarer neighbours. Moving forward our path is blocked by the railway line, but you can already see the famous Golden Gate up ahead. The Golden Gate is the first of the major gates which allow access over the moat and into the city. It was a monumental triumphal archway designed for imperial processions. This 19th century sketch illustrates its complex construction. As you can see there are actually two entrances. The first gateway may have been erected before the rest of the walls were in place. It was a triumphal arch put up to commemorate a Theodosian victory and was once covered in mythological sculptures. Once you passed through it you would see the second gate built into the land walls and flanked by these huge towers. This was the actual Golden Gate, a triple archway with doors of gilded bronze. Above the gates stood a famous statue of four elephants lashed together as if they were a chariot team pulling the Emperor Theodosius. Many famous Roman triumphs, processions to mark military victories, began here. Heraclius, Constantine V, Basil I and II, who is pictured in this illustration, all marched from here up the Messe in front of the assembled population. The only way I could get shots of the gate, awkwardly, was to climb through a neighbouring graveyard. Why? Because the Golden Gate was incorporated into an Ottoman fortress shortly after the conquest of the city. The fortress of Yedikule, or Seven Towers, functioned as a prison and treasury. Taking advantage of the Golden Gates and adding these three Turkish towers, it formed a formidable redoubt. I hope in future it will be open again to the public and we will be able to properly enjoy the Golden Gate. Currently the view is limited and you have to find the right angle to see the two separate gateways. Do visit thebyzantinelegacy.com to see the little bits of Byzantine sculpture which have survived in and around the gate. Back on the path the line of the walls now takes on an appearance that might be familiar to you, with the towers stretching away into the distance. And we get more of a sense of the shape of the triple walls here, with bits of the outer wall still standing and the moat now given over to gardens. The dilapidated state of the walls does open up some sections for us to gain insights. Here you can see the small arches which held up the turrets on the outer wall, while this tower reveals its two inner chambers to us. The upper story was used for fighting, the lower for storage. There was no internal access between the two, the staircases were all external. We're now approaching the second public gate and we get a nice shot here of the decay of one of the Byzantine towers contrasted with the shiny restored gate towers. This modern restoration has been heavily criticised for its lack of care for the original materials, but this section does recreate for us the triple wall structure, showing the three-layered obstacle that any attacker would have to overcome. This section of the walls was almost never attacked because its defences were so strong. This gate was known as the Deuteron and then the Zillokerkos gate in Byzantine times, and then as the Belgrade gate under the Ottomans. As we cross the moat you can see another access military gate just over there, and if we look behind the outer wall we can see how soldiers accessed the battlements. Walking through the gates we can see the external staircases that led to the top of the outer walls. When the city was besieged catapults and other weapons would be dragged up there. Moving on we continue along this restored section and soon we find a few towers from the outer wall which have managed to survive. On tower 25 nearby we find some fragments from an inscription put up by the emperors Leo III and Constantine V from the 8th century. The walk to the next gate is fairly peaceful, if you don't count the traffic noise. The walls are gently crumbling with restored parts peeking out from the rubble. You will pass the second military gate as it's called which is open to the public. On tower 34 just before the next major gate you might be able to spot another fragmentary inscription. This one is from John Palaiologos. Repairs were made to this tower just 15 years before Constantinople fell to the Turks. Our next gate is the Pegae Gate or Gate of the Spring named for a holy spring nearby. This was the gate that Byzantine forces used to recapture the city from the Crusader occupation in 1261. If we look at the left gate tower we can see another inscription from Basil II and his brother who repaired this tower back in the 11th century. But if we go through the gates we see another inscription indicating vital repairs were undertaken again just before the city fell. It says this god-protected gate of the life-giving spring was restored with the cooperation and at the expense of Manuil Virienios Leontarae in the reign of the most pious sovereigns John and Maria Palaiologai in the month of May in the year 6946. You can still visit the spring by the way. It is housed in the monastery of Zoodochos Pegae nearby where you can also visit the graves of several orthodox patriarchs. Moving on we come to another early inscription on tower 37. Leo with Constantine, wielders of the scepter, erected from the foundations this tower which had fallen. This is Leo IV and Constantine VI from the 8th century. This next section of the walls is in rougher shape than others. You can see from the smoke that people live amongst the ruins here. Our next major gate is the gate of Rhesios. Though the towers have been restored the gate itself has maintained much of its 5th century appearance, including inscriptions in Greek and Latin over the gate itself. These were put here under the Emperor Theodosius II in 447 AD. On the order of Theodosius within less than two months Constantine triumphantly placed these firm walls. So fast not even palace could found a fortress standing so strong. The Constantine here is the Emperor's chief minister. Why are they boasting about building the walls in just two months? As you may remember the walls had been constructed 30 years before this but in 447 a series of earthquakes levelled large sections of the walls. This was more than just an inconvenience since Attila the Hun, yes the Attila the Hun, was on the march through Roman lands at that very moment. Hence the need to put the walls back up as quickly as humanly possible. The inscription on the lintel, the one around the cross, was put there by Justinian's nephew Justin in the 6th century to indicate that he had also completed some repairs. Along the next section of the walls we come to one of the most intriguing inscriptions up on tower 54. It is a prayer and says, O Christ God, preserve thy city undisturbed and free you from war, conquer the wrath of the enemies. Together with the cristograms and carvings of crosses on different parts of the walls we begin to get a sense of how the city's defences became imbued with spiritual significance, their earthly solidity resting squarely on the relationship between the city and its divine protectors. You can also see people walking about the walls here. This is one of the rare sections of the battlements where the outer wall has survived and a route up is available. It's fun to get up close to the walls and though the gap between the inner and outer walls has been filled in over the centuries you still get a sense of the intimidating look up for an enemy soldier. A short walk further on and we come to a spot where the walls have been cut to make way for a major road into Istanbul. We're near the fourth military gate. There is an inscription marking it just before the break in the walls and we're around here on our illustration and have covered about half of the land walls. So let's pause here and continue on in part two. If you'd like more detailed information about the land walls then visit thebyzantinelegacy.com. It's a fantastic website providing breakdowns of the Byzantine buildings that can still be seen today and there you'll find most of these still images and sketches used in these videos as well as a map of the entire length of the walls.