I've developed an attachment to the Theodosian Walls (the enormous system of defensive fortifications built around Constantinople, largely under Emperor Theodosius II in the fifth century). Nearly a thousand years of sieges, invasions, dynastic disputes and imperial ambitions, and they kept the city standing. Their Importance went far beyond military defence. This walls were a statement of imperial permanence. They made the city appear almost impossible to take and for centuries that appearance was backed by an extraordinary military. By 1453, Mehmed II (the Ottoman sultan who led the conquest of Constantinople) had brought artillery capable of challenging fortifications that had resisted generations of armies. Among them was the enormous cannon associated with Orban (a Hungarian artillery founder who offered his services to the Ottomans). Gunpowder had altered the conditions of warfare, and the walls were suddenly confronting a problem thdy couldn't handle.

Oh, Constantinople. It pains me to think about how much history that city witnessed. It survived so much, became the centre of so many worlds, and then, in 1453, it was finally taken. The amount of life that existed within those walls, most of which we can only ever reconstruct from fragments gets me. I wish I could have seen it before the conquest.