Destiny Disrupted

176 DESTINY DISRUPTED

CONSTANTINOPLE

i/2mil~

500m.,u;r>

GAL ATA

S e a 0 f Marmara

Constantinople: The World's Most Impregnable City

The siege of Constantinople lasted fifty-four days, the city being all but
impregnable. Located on a triangular spit of land shaped like a rhinoceros
horn, it faced the Bosporus Straits on one side and the Sea of Marmara on
another. On these sides it had high sea walls and promontories command-
ing the narrow straits, from which the Byzantines could bombard any
ships approaching the city. On the land side, it had a series of stone walls
that stretched across the whole peninsula from sea to sea, each wall with its
own moat. Each moat was broader and deeper and each wall thicker and
taller than the one before. The innermost wall stood ninety feet high and
was more than thirty feet thick; no one could get past that barrier, espe-
cially since the Byzantines had a secret weapon called Byzantine fire, a
glutinous burning substance that was launched from catapults and
splashed when it landed, sticking to flesh. It could not be doused with
water-in fact, it was probably some primitive form of napalm.