THE AQUEDUCT OF VAEENS, IN CONSTANTINOPLE 



In the erection and various restorations of this stately aqueduct, the greatest among the 

 pagan, Christian, and Moslem sovereigns of Constantinople seem laboring as contempora- 

 ries, shoulder to shoulder, though hundreds of years apart. As seen today, it reveals, in its 

 unshaken strength and quaint proportions, the architectural magnificence and childish caprice 

 of Sultan Souleiman I the Sublime. Absorbed in its restoration, he used to pray, the Otto- 

 man historians state, that his life might be prolonged until it was complete. But no sooner 

 was it finished than he ordered its immediate destruction, since it obstructed the view of 

 Shahzadeh Djami, his favorite mosque. Its present abrupt appearance at either end results 

 from the demolition thus begun but not fully accomplished. The hewn stone arches, twenty 

 feet in thickness, are the work of the Byzantine emperors, while those in brick above date 

 from Souleiman. The water it conveyed, considered the purest in the city, was long reserved 

 for the seraglio and now largely supplies the eastern quarters of Stamboul. 



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