Travel Reference
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porphyry drums. (The present masonry casing conceals the lowest
of these.) At the summit, instead of the present masonry, there was a
large capital, presumably Corinthian, upon which stood a statue of
Constantine as Apollo. The iron hoops were an early addition, put on
in 416 because the lowest part of the column had a piece knocked out
of it and was thought unsafe. The statue of Constantine fell down as
the result of a violent wind in 1106, and some 50 years later Manuel I
Commenus replaced the capital by the masonry courses we see today,
on top of which he placed a large cross. he lower masonry is Turkish
work added in 1779 in order to bolster up the column. The column
has recently been restored and the iron hoops have been replaced by
new ones.
The ceremony of the original dedication of the column was
a curious mixture of assorted pagan and Christian rites. Buried
under the column or in the statue, itself, was the most incredible
collection of relics: the Palladium of Troy, the hatchet of Noah, the
stone from which Moses made water flow, the baskets and remains
of the loaves with which Christ fed the multitude, the nails of the
Passion (intertwined with the rays of Apollo!) and bits of the True
Cross discovered by St. Helena at Jerusalem for the occasion. And
the Apollo above did not prevent the people from later worshipping
the deified Emperor, converted into a Christian saint, in a chapel at
the base of the column.
VEZİR HANI
Leaving the main avenue for a moment, we turn to the right on Vezir
Han Caddesi, the street which runs downhill beside the Column
of Constantine. A short distance down the right side of this street
we come to the entrance to Vezir Hanı, another institution of the
Köprülü külliyesi. Such hans, or kervansarays, were commercial
establishments where a travelling merchant could not only obtain
food and lodging for the night but could also sell or store his goods.
They are huge and stoutly-built structures of stone, or stone and
brick, with two or three storeys around a great courtyard. One enters
through a monumental gateway with very strong doors of thick
wood, bound with iron, that are locked and barred at night. The
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