DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62355#0060
20
BEAUTIES OF THE BOSPHORUS.
sound, like the hollow rumbling of a coming storm along the billows of the
Black Sea.
The gardens of the palace are extensive, but will require time to make them
worthy of description; at present, a great portion of the hill-side behind the
building is left in its original state, boasting for all ornament sweeps of fine
cypresses, and here and there a tuft of almond trees, a group of acacias, or a
majestic maple; while the white tents of the Bulgarian workmen employed
upon the walls, give to the scene the picturesque and cheerful appearance of a
summer encampment.
THE CASTLES OF EUROPE AND ASIA.
" Lo! dusky masses steal in dubious sight
Along the leaguered wall and bristling bank
Of the arm'd river."
Byron.
These fortresses stand on either shore of the Bosphorus, about half way up;
where the channel is unusually narrow, and was once traversed by the celebrated
bridge of Darius. The Anadoli Hissari, or Castle of Asia, was, during the reign
of the Janissaries, the prison of the Bostangis, or body-guard of the Sultan, who
were here immured or executed as the nature of their crimes dictated. It rises
on the lip of a pleasant rivulet which empties itself into the Bosphorus, and
washes the tree-fringed valley of the Asian Sweet Waters, called by the natives
Guiuk-Suy, or Chest-water, from the extreme purity of the spring.
The Roumeli Hissari, or Castle of Europe, on the opposite shore, is of very
singular construction, the ground-plan forming the characters of the Prophet's
name; by whom, tradition says that it was built in six days, by permission of
the Greek emperor, who, with more courtesy than policy, acceded to the desire
of Mahomet to possess a pied-a-terre on the European edge of the channel.
This fortress was the celebrated prison of the Janissaries ; and the large gun yet
fills its embrasure on the lower rampart, which was fired on the execution of
every criminal, to announce to the Sultan that the guilty one had expiated his
crime. The strength of the Castle is much greater than its appearance from
the sea would indicate; and it is well supplied with water, and the means of
BEAUTIES OF THE BOSPHORUS.
sound, like the hollow rumbling of a coming storm along the billows of the
Black Sea.
The gardens of the palace are extensive, but will require time to make them
worthy of description; at present, a great portion of the hill-side behind the
building is left in its original state, boasting for all ornament sweeps of fine
cypresses, and here and there a tuft of almond trees, a group of acacias, or a
majestic maple; while the white tents of the Bulgarian workmen employed
upon the walls, give to the scene the picturesque and cheerful appearance of a
summer encampment.
THE CASTLES OF EUROPE AND ASIA.
" Lo! dusky masses steal in dubious sight
Along the leaguered wall and bristling bank
Of the arm'd river."
Byron.
These fortresses stand on either shore of the Bosphorus, about half way up;
where the channel is unusually narrow, and was once traversed by the celebrated
bridge of Darius. The Anadoli Hissari, or Castle of Asia, was, during the reign
of the Janissaries, the prison of the Bostangis, or body-guard of the Sultan, who
were here immured or executed as the nature of their crimes dictated. It rises
on the lip of a pleasant rivulet which empties itself into the Bosphorus, and
washes the tree-fringed valley of the Asian Sweet Waters, called by the natives
Guiuk-Suy, or Chest-water, from the extreme purity of the spring.
The Roumeli Hissari, or Castle of Europe, on the opposite shore, is of very
singular construction, the ground-plan forming the characters of the Prophet's
name; by whom, tradition says that it was built in six days, by permission of
the Greek emperor, who, with more courtesy than policy, acceded to the desire
of Mahomet to possess a pied-a-terre on the European edge of the channel.
This fortress was the celebrated prison of the Janissaries ; and the large gun yet
fills its embrasure on the lower rampart, which was fired on the execution of
every criminal, to announce to the Sultan that the guilty one had expiated his
crime. The strength of the Castle is much greater than its appearance from
the sea would indicate; and it is well supplied with water, and the means of