The Water Supply of Constantinople. 5 



Emperor Yalens, which was intended to convey the water 

 of Justinian's aqueduct from the fourth to the third hill of 

 the city. In the year 370, the Emperor Yalens, wishing to 

 revenge himself on the city of Chalcedon, just opposite to 

 Constantinople, razed its walls, and took the stones to 

 build this aqueduct. For some unrecorded reason, it has 

 long ceased to be used for the purpose for which it was 

 erected. It rises prominent in the city, dark, hoar and 

 massive, overgrown with blackberry vines, ivy and over- 

 hanging bushes, which are ever kept fresh by the water 

 oozing from the stones. A path may be followed on its 

 top extending for the length of a mile. Here you find 

 that pipes are laid, by means of which water crosses its 

 path, the aqueduct being used instead of columns, at va- 

 rious distances for the support of pipes, which constitute 

 a kind of inverted syphon. Of these syphons I will speak 

 more particularly in connection with the next and only re- 

 maining aqueduct. 



This last aqueduct is of purely Turkish origin, and was 

 built, in the name of the mother of Mustapha III, the 

 Valide Sultan, a little more than one hundred years since. 

 It conveys water from the eastern end of the range of hills 

 of Belgrade, to Pera, Galata, and the villages on the 

 Bosphorus. It commences, as do the others, with dams or 

 bendts to form lakes in the valleys. The lower dam of 

 this one is of marble, 400 feet long, sixty feet wide at the 

 bottom, and 130 feet high. The promenade on this struct- 

 ure is protected by a stone balustrade four feet high ; the 

 marvellous effect of its size is heightened by buildings two 

 stories high at each end for the use of royal parties. The 

 water soon after leaving the bendt crosses a valley by an 

 aqueduct supported on two tiers of arches, eighty feet high 

 and 400 feet long. A public road passes under it. Its top 

 is covered with marble slabs ; the channel is fifteen inches 

 wide and eighteen inches deep ; the velocity of the water, 



