Beside the city-wall, near Rue Edirné Kapou, is the sixth and highest city-hill, on which rises the Mihrimah Mosque (Pl. C, 3), built in 1556 by Sinán (p. [552]) for the princess Mihrimah (p. [545]), on the site of the Byzantine monastery of St. George, and restored in 1910.—From the Greek Church of St. George we walk about 250 paces to the N.E., and then descend to the right, near the city-wall, to visit the—
Kahrieh Mosque (Pl. C, 2), once the church of the monastery of Chora (‘in the country’), which probably existed before the time of Theodosius II. It was restored in the 11th cent. and enlarged in the 14th, and contains famous Byzantine *Mosaics (sacristan lives near).
We now turn our steps to the ruinous Edirneh Kapu (Pl. C, 2; Adrianople Gate), the gate of Charisius or cemetery-gate (Porta Polyandriu) of the Byzantines.
Outside the gate, where stretches the largest Moslem Cemetery of Stambul, we obtain an excellent view of the old *Land-Wall of the city, over 4 M. in length. The chief part of it is the Theodosian Wall (p. [541]), extending from the Sea of Marmora to the Tekfur Seraï (see below). This was originally a single wall, defended by towers, but after an earthquake in 447 it was doubled, the two walls being 66 yds. apart and, from the bottom of the moat, 100 ft. high.
The S. part of the land-wall may be visited by carriage (one-horse 10, two-horse 10 or 15 pias.; bargaining necessary) from the Edirneh Kapu. We drive past Top Kapu (Pl. A, 4; ‘cannon-gate’), once the gate of St. Romanos, famed in the siege of 1453, to Yedi Kuleh railway-station (Pl. A, B, 9). We may return thence to the town by local train (about every ½ hr.), or from the Yedi Kuleh Gate by tramway (No. 4; change at Ak Seraï, p. [553]), or from Psamatia Kapu (Pl. B, 8) by local steamer (p. [538]).
Near the S. end of the wall rises the castle of Yedi Kuleh (Pl. A, 9; ‘seven towers’; adm. except Sun. 2½ pias.; small fee to lantern-bearer), rebuilt by Mohammed II., within which is the dilapidated Porta Aurea (‘golden gate’), once the triumphal gate of the Byzantine emperors.—On the Sea of Marmora, at the point where the land-wall joined the Marmora Sea Wall, rises the octagonal Mermer Kuleh (Pl. A, 9; ‘marble tower’), the sole relic of a castle of the time of Emp. Basil II. (976–1025).
To the N.E. of the Edirneh Kapu, beyond the Greek Cemetery (Pl. C, 2), the Theodosian city-wall is joined by the single but stronger Wall of the Blachernae Quarter (‘marsh-land quarter’). This wall served for the defence of the famous St. Mary’s Church of the empress Pulcheria (ca. 450), and for that of the Blachernæ Palace, founded at the end of the 5th cent., which in the 12th cent. became the imperial residence instead of the older palaces in the Augusteion (p. [549]). The wall dates partly from the reigns of Emp. Heraklios (610–41), Leo V. (813–20), and Manuel Comnenus (1143–80), but was largely rebuilt in the 14th and 15th centuries.
The ruined Byzantine palace rising above the town-wall near the small Kerkoporta (Pl. C, 2), the so-called Tekfur Seraï (‘emperor’s palace’), was probably founded by Constantine VII. Porphyrogenetos (912–59). Of the Blachernae Palace itself the foundations are still traceable between the Egri Kapu (Pl. C, 1; once Porta Kaligaria) and the Aivas Effendi Mosque. To the old terrace of the palace belonged the massive Towers of Isaak Angelos and Anemas (Pl. C, 1).
On the N. side the land-walls end with the picturesque castle of Brachionon or Pentapyrgion, answering to the Yedi Kuleh on the S. side. It lies between the inner and the site of the outer Blachernæ gate. Near it are buried the Arabs who fell in 678 (p. [541]).
From the Aivan Seraï Kapu (Pl. D, 1), which belongs to the old Sea Wall on the Golden Horn (p. [541]), a broad road to the left (N.W.) leads through the suburb of Ortakjilar (Pl. B, C, 1) to (¾ M.) Eyúb (p. [555]). Straight on, we soon reach the Aivan Seraï pier (p. [555]).