A Guide to Constantinople
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'JUfV ?n fpop A GUIDE CONSTANTINOPLE " The Galata Bridge From Constantinople" By Ooble and Mfflingen [A. & C BlacKn C8546 ^A GUIDE TO CONSTANTINOPLE BY DEMETKIUS COUFOPOULOS FOURTH EDITION ^ LONDON ADAM AND CHARLESCHAI BLACK * 1910 First Edition published September 1S95. Second Edition, October 1S99 Third March 190'2 Edition, ; reprinted January 1900. Fourth Edition. May 1910. PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION The rapid sale of this Guide, and the praise it has received from tourists that have used it, as well as the changes that have occurred since its publication in the city of Constantinople, encourage me to issue a second edition. In preparing this I have care- rally revised the book throughout, re -writing or adding to some passages where necessary. The maps have been brought up to date, and an alpha- betical index has been added D. G. COUFOPOULOS. September 1899. PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION In issuing this Guide to Constantinople let me say at once that it is designed rather for the use of the ordinary sight-seer than of the specialised student. My aim has been to avoid confusing the reader with too great fulness of historical, topo- graphical, or technical details, but rather to fix his attention on salient points, and to convey to him as succinctly as possible such information as is most likely to be of use to one who, without much previous study, wishes to devote a limited time as pleasantly and profitably as may be to the explora- tion of the City and its Environs. In carrying out this aim I hope that my many years' experience as Dragoman in Constantinople will be found to have been not without their use in enabling me to divine the wants of such a traveller as I have indicated. August 1895 MAPS Plan of Pera facing page 1 Plan of Mosque of St. Sophia . page 58 Chart of the Bosporus .... facing page 154 Plan of Constantinople, in pocket at end. ILLUSTRATIONS BY WARWICK GOBLE. FROM "CONSTANTINOPLE" PAINTED BY WARWICK GOBLE, DESCRIBED BY PROF. A. VAN MILLINGEN. PUBLISHED BY A. AND C. BLACK, SOHO SQUARE. LONDON The Galata Bridge Frontispiece A Stamboul Beggar facing page 34 Interior of St. Sophia 60 Market in the Court of the Mosque of Sultan Ahmed I 76 Flower Sellers 110 The Golden Horn 150 The Sweet Waters of Europe . 158 A Kafedji 180 GUIDE-BOOK CONSTANTINOPLE AND DISTRICT Situation.—Constantinople, the capital of the Otto- man Empire, is situated at the junction of the Bosporus and the Sea of Marmora, in lat. 41° 0' 16" N. and long. 28° 59' 14" E., and may be said to be composed of three different towns, viz. Stam- bu.1, Galata-Pera, and Skutari. The two first named are on the European shore, and are divided by the Golden Horn; while Skutari lies on the Asiatic shore, and is separated from them by the Bosporus. Stambul, or Constantinople proper, occupies the site of ancient Byzantium, and, like ancient Borne, is built on seven hills. On the first of these, on which stood the original city of Byzantium, are the Old Seraglio, the Mosque of St. Sophia, and the on the second the Hippodrome ; Porphyry Column, site of on the the ancient Forum of Constantine ; 2 CONSTANTINOPLE on the third the "War Office and the Suleimanieh Mosque; on the fourth the Mehinedieh Mosque; the fifth the Selimieh on the sixth the on Mosque ; ruins of the Hebdomon Palace ; and on the seventh the Column of Arcadius. With the seven hills, however, all similarity to Rome of old ends. Stambul with its seven hills, lying on a triangular promontory, is washed by the waters of the Golden Horn on the north, by the limpid Sea of Marmora on the south, and by the swift current of the Bosporus on its eastern side. Constantinople cannot, by any means, claim to be the most beautiful city in existence. Never- theless, nature has been so generous in her favours, that travellers and historians assign to the capital of the Sultans no mean rank among the most picturesque cities of the world. Constanti- nople may justly boast of what no other city can claim : it is situated on two different continents, Europe and Asia, and constitutes the dividing line between West and East. The bard, the author and the artist have each, severally and oft, tried to depict in song, in prose, and in the of the but each colours, beauty city ; and all have failed, for Constantinople baffles all attempt at could description ; and no verse, no pen, no brush, adequately convey to the mind any idea of the vision SITUATION 3 that greets the eye of the foreigner who approaches the city from the west on a fine summer's morning. It is more like some enchanted city out of the 'Thousand and One Nights than like any real town built of bricks, stones, and mortar; and so the traveller is sure to think as, coming on deck early in the morning, he catches sight of seven low-lying hills covered with buildings of all descriptions down to the waters all the colours of the edge ; painted rainbow, with a white kiosk, and a few cypresses, ' or the slim, sharp spire of some minaret/ or the imposing cupolas of the numerous mosques showing houses the whole above the gaily-painted ; enveloped in the slight morning mist, which the sun's power- ful rays will soon dissolve, and which serves but to enhance the beauty of the picture, with its back- ground of soft blue Oriental sky and its foreground of the Sea of Marmora, in the limpid waters of which the town is reflected as in a mirror. This is Constantinople from a distance ! But the scene is quite different when the traveller lands and proceeds to stumble along the narrow, dirty, wretchedly -paved alleys which do duty for streets. He has to pick his way as care- fully as he can among the countless mangy, half- starved pariah dogs which infest the town; the ' noisy, vociferating hamals or porters, going light,' 4 CONSTANTINOPLE or under loads staggering along heavy ; past donkey drivers and muleteers giving vent to most unearthly yells at their horses or donkeys, convey- ing long balks of timber or other building material.' The numerous hawkers of all sorts of articles further contribute their share to the din and con- fusion by yelling out, at the top of their voices, the nature, excellence, and cheapness of their wares. The traveller's ears, however, are not the only sufferers for his nerves are offended on ; olfactory every side by the stench arising from the oft- recurring heaps of garbage, which emit odours the ' very opposite to the perfumes of Araby,' with which he would naturally expect his nose would be assailed in the East. Climate.—The climate of Constantinople is on the whole is healthy ; but, being very variable, not suitable for people suffering from pulmonary affections, or for persons of full habit of body. The best time for visiting Constantinople is in the months of April and May, and September and October, just before, and just after, the hot season. Population. —The population of Constantinople, in the utter absence of any official figures, cannot be given with any degree of accuracy, but may be set down at about 1,200,000. Historical Sketch, — Tradition assigns the HISTORICAL SKETCH 5 foundation of Byzantium to a band of settlers from Megara, under a leader named Byzas, in 658 B.C. The oracle of Apollo at Delphi, which they had consulted, foretold that those who set out would be certain to prosper on the Thracian shore, near the Euxine, where there was an abundance of game. The Megarians inferred that the oracle intended to designate a spot near the mouth of the two streams * Cydaris and Barbysus (the present Sweet Waters of Europe'), and therefore proceeded there. They were sacrificing an ox, when a crow swooped down and carried off a piece of the sacrificial meat, which a shepherd subsequently told them it dropped at Cape Bosporus (now Seraglio Point). The Megarians, taking this act of the bird as a good omen, immediately removed to the promontory, where they settled and built a town called Byzantium, after their leader Byzas. According to another tradition, the oracle enjoined Byzas and his ' followers to settle opposite the city of the blind/ in allusion to a former party of emigrants who, overlooking the advantageous site on the promon- tory, had settled at Chalcedon, now Kadi Keui. Its advantageous situation soon exposed the city to the covetousness of its neighbours and of other nations, and it was in turn attacked by the and even the Gauls while Thracians, Bithynians, ; 6 • CONSTANTINOPLE it was repeatedly invested by the Persians, who, during the campaign of Darius against the Scythians, compelled the town to surrender to one Otanes, of Darius' generals, and subsequently burnt it. After the- battle of Platsea (479 B.C.) the Lacedaemonians under Pausanias took Byzantium from the Persians, and refounded the colony. Seven years later it was taken from the Lacedaemonians by th3 Athenians; but in 440 B.C. it revolted and returned to its former allegiance. It was again besieged and taken by Alcibiades in 408 B.C. The city continued in the possession of the Athenians till after the battle of Aegos Potami in 405 B.C., when it was recovered for the Spartans by Lysander. A few years later Xenophon and his Ten Thousand passed through it on their march from Persia. In 390 B.C. it was once more brought under the influence of Athens.