Читать книгу Byzantine Constantinople, the walls of the city and adjoining historical sites онлайн

31 страница из 107

Dr. Strzygowski has suggested that the Cistern of Bonus stood near Eski Ali Pasha Djamissi,[89] on the northern bank of the valley of the Lycus, and to the south-west of the Mosque of Sultan Mehemet.[90] No traces of a cistern have been found in that locality, but the conjecture satisfies the requirements of the case so far as the proximity of that site to the line of Constantine’s wall and to the Church of the Holy Apostles is concerned. Why that position should have been selected for a summer palace is, however, not apparent.

We have said that the Constantinian Wall, upon leaving the Cistern of Aspar, turned sharply to the north-east, and made for the shore of the Golden Horn by running obliquely across the ridge of the Fifth Hill.

This view of the case is required, first, in order to keep the breadth of the city within the limits assigned by the Notitia; and, secondly, by the statement of the same authority that the Eleventh Region—the Region at the north-western angle of the Constantinian city—did not extend to the shore of the Golden Horn: “Nulla parte mari sociata est.”[91] For this statement implies that the fortifications along the northern front of that Region stood at some distance from the water. But the northern slope of the Fifth Hill is so precipitous, and approaches so close to the Golden Horn that the only available ground for the fortifications on that side of the city would be the plateau of the Fifth Hill, where the large cistern beside the Mosque of Sultan Selim is found.

Правообладателям