Along the Land Walls - Strolling Through Istanbul: The Classic Guide to the City - page 363

palace served for a while as a brothel. But it was soon redeemed from
this misuse; for in 1719 there was set up here the famous Tekfur Saray
pottery. This works produced a new kind of Turkish tile, the so-called
Tekfur Saray type, inferior indeed to those of Iznik and beginning
to show European influence, but nevertheless quite charming. The
project, however, was short-lived and by the second half of the
eighteenth century the palace was in full decline and finally lost its
roof and floors. During the first half of the nineteenth century Tekfur
Saray served as a poorhouse for the indigent Jews of Stamboul. About
1860, the American missionary Cyrus Hamlin, searching for a site
for the future Robert College, seriously considered purchasing the
palace and restoring it for use as an educational institution; perhaps
fortunately, the idea was abandoned in favour of the present site of
the College (now Boğaziçi University) on the Bosphorus. In recent
years the palace has served as a bottle works and storehouse - the
lamentable history of a palace down on its luck. The building is now
a mere shell; but in recent years the surviving structure has been well
restored.
Just beyond Tekfur Saray the Theodosian wall comes to an abrupt
end, and from there the fortifications are continued by walls of later
construction. There has been much discussion about the original
course of the Theodosian walls from Tekfur Saray down to the Golden
Horn. It would appear that they turned almost due north at Tekfur
Saray and from there followed a more or less straight line down to
the Horn, whereas the present walls are bent in an arc farther out into
Thrace. Stretches of what are undoubtedly the original Theodosian
wall can be seen at Tekfur Saray and also along Mumhane Caddesi,
which we reach by turning right in the little square beyond the palace
and then taking the first left. The ruined walls along this street are
quite impressive and picturesque.
The present stretch of walls from Tekfur Saray to the Golden Horn
is quite diferent from the Theodosian fortifications. It is a single
bulwark without a moat; to make up for this deficiency it is thicker
and more massive than the main Theodosian wall and its towers are
stronger, higher and closer together. The part of the wall that encloses
the western bulge between Tekfur Saray and the Blachernae terrace