Around the Blue Mosque - Strolling Through Istanbul: The Classic Guide to the City - page 126

they are Doric capitals of the fifth century B.C., doubtless from some
ancient temple that stood nearby.
These ruins are all that now remain above ground of the Great Palace
of Byzantium, whose pavilions and gardens covered the Marmara slopes
of the First Hill. The palace was first built by Constantine the Great
at the time when he founded his new capital. Much of the Palace was
destroyed during the Nika rebellion in 532, but it was soon afterwards
rebuilt and considerably enlarged by Justinian. Later emperors,
particularly Basil the Macedonian in the ninth century, restored and
extended the palace and adorned it with works of art. The Great Palace
was divided into several diferent establishments: the Sacred Palace and
the Palaces of Daphne and Chalke, which were located near the present
site of the Blue Mosque; the Palaces of Magnaura and Mangana,
which stood to the south-east of Haghia Sophia, on the slope of the
hill leading down the Marmara; and the sea-palace of Bucoleon. In its
time, the Great Palace had no equal in the world and medieval travellers
have left us awed descriptions of its splendours. The Emperors of
Byzantium lived and ruled there for nearly nine centuries, up until the
sack of Constantinople by the Crusaders in 1204. After the restoration
of the Byzantine Empire in 1261 the Great Palace was found to be in
a state of advanced decay and was never afterwards restored. Instead,
the later emperors abandoned the palaces by the Marmara and took up
their residence in the Palace of Blachernae, in the north-western corner
of the city. At the time of the Turkish Conquest, the Great Palace was
completely in ruins. Shortly after he entered the city, Sultan Mehmet
the Conqueror walked through the ruined halls of the palace and was
so saddened as to recite a melancholy distich by the Persian poet
Saadi: “The spider is the curtain-holder in the Palace of the Caesars.
The owl hoots its night call on the Towers of Aphrasiab.”
Passing the Palace of Bucoleon, we continue walking along the
sea-walls. The next defence-tower we pass, in the angle just to the
east of Bucoleon, was once the Pharos or Lighthouse of Byzantium.
In modern times it has been replaced by another lighthouse farther
along the sea-walls.
About 400 metres beyond the Bucoleon we come to one of the
ancient public gateways in the sea-wall. (The gate is just beyond the