740 
WALLS OF THE CITY. 
willows. After passing under their pretty latticed galleries, we 
reached an abode of a different kind; the prison of the Seven 
Towers ; an edifice where misery alone awaits its inmates. This 
gloomy castle is evidently a remains of the original fortifications 
of the city. When I say original, I do not mean that the whole 
is of the age of Constantine; but as the science of war under¬ 
went so few material changes, until the invention of gunpowder, 
the style of fortifying places necessarily remained in much the 
same stationary state; therefore I do not conceive that the old 
mural defences of this city, so easily traceable round its whole 
extent, differ in almost any respect from the plan of their first 
founder. The prison just mentioned forms the south-west 
angle of the town ; and its walls and towers present a very 
distinguished object from a distance, being considerably higher 
than the general line of fortification. The battlements of the 
latter are surmounted by lofty cone-shaped masses, more like 
dove-cotes than bastions. The line of defence to the west, which 
was certainly its most vulnerable side, is strengthened by a triple 
pile of works, with the addition of a spacious ditch. The first 
range of wall is low, and merely battlemented. The second is 
much higher, and protected at intervals with small square 
towers. The third is exceedingly lofty, with towers of cor¬ 
responding magnitude, in square or octagon shapes. On this 
side of the city, the remains of several fine gates strike the 
eye; particularly one, that nearest to the Propontis, and 
which I think may probably be the Porta Aurea of Theo¬ 
dosius, so celebrated for comprising in its form and deco¬ 
rations, all the magnificence of the triumphal arch. It took 
its appellation, Aurea, from the golden ornaments that enriched 
it; and not only near the spot I mean, but close to it, lie the 
