92 RUINED CASTLES IN ASIA MINOR. 
that dark and unfortunate land clusters about the re- 
cently established progressive Christian institutions of 
education and religion. 
But your steamer hastens on, and you turn from this 
remarkable group of buildings, old and new, to scan the 
ever thickening beauties all about you. For another 
half hour you sail along down between rows of glitter- 
ing palaces along the water’s edge with a widening belt 
of densely packed suburban quarters covering the steep 
hills back of them, until at length your vessel swings 
into her berth under the very walls of the city of the 
Constantines. Here you have, not a detached castle or 
group of towers, but a great city entirely encircled by a 
continuous chain of huge towers connected by massive 
walls. About two-thirds of this circuit have the ad- 
ditional protection of the sea or the harbor. On the 
land side, to compensate for this, there was a triple 
wall. Much of this still stands in ivy-clad majesty, 
though huge fissures yawn in many places, the dread 
work of repeated earthquakes, and long stretches of 
what was once a deep fosse between the outer and the 
middle wall is now a luxuriant vegetable garden. There 
are six gates on this landward side; each one has its 
own special features of interest and each is flanked by 
great towers, while above them all cluster innumerable 
reminiscences and traditions of blood and violence, of 
seige and assault, of heroism and of villany. 
At the southwest angle, where the Jand wall runs down 
to the Marmora Sea, is a most interesting group called 
the ‘‘ Seven towers.’’ Here the ancient builders put up 
tower after tower with lavish prodigality, as if, forsooth, 
by their very numbers these structures could support 
each other and render absolutely impregnable this criti- 
cal point in the defences of the city. 
These are some of the castles in and near the great 
capital, and with such a superficial glance many trav- 
