Читать книгу The Antiquities of Constantinople - Gilles Pierre - Страница 19

THE sixth Hill is just as long as the Promontory is broad, which is widen’d upon this Hill to the Breadth of two thousand four hundred Paces. The City Walls shoot over the Ridge, and the North Side of it down to the Sea Shore. You descend gradually from the Top of it within the Walls; without the Walls it lies upon a Level, and is join’d to the Continent by a Field in the Suburbs. The broadest part of it is not above eight hundred Paces, the narrowest but four hundred. It descends with a treble Declivity; one on the left Hand of the Promontory, with an easy Descent at South-east; another on the right falling to the Bay Northward, which extends itself to the Distance of fifteen hundred Paces. There are two lesser Hills, separated by a small Valley, which run between them. At the Foot of that lesser Hill which stands nearest to the City Wall, there is an Aqueduct. Between this Hill and the Bay, there formerly stood the Church of the Blachernæ, which has been recorded in the Writings of many Historians. The Foundation of this Church was remaining, when I first arrived at Constantinople. From the Foot of this Hill, which stands above the Church I have mention’d, there rises a Spring, whose Waters are convey’d thro’ arch’d subterraneous Passages into the City, where, appearing above Ground, they flow constantly into a Marble Cistern. That Side of the sixth Hill which lies Eastward, is as long as the Hill itself; but does not, in all parts of it, fall with the same Descent. For the Descent varies, according as the Valley adjoining lies higher or lower. Where the Valley lies upon the Level, the Pitch of the Hill rises to the Height of six hundred Paces; where it does not lie so low, ’tis not above five hundred Paces high; where it rises higher, not above four hundred. Nor does this Side of the Hill shoot only Eastward, but does also, on the right Side of it, project Northward, and on the left Side of it extend itself full South-west. The Plain on the Shore, which lies between the Foot of the Hill and the Bay, in the narrow part of it, is not above eight hundred Paces broad, I mean in that Place where the Church of the Blachernæ stood formerly, as did also a Triclinium; but farther on it winds round into the third Valley, and widens much more.