The Land Walls of Constantinople (part 1)
The famous Theodosian land walls kept Constantinople safe for a thousand years. Let's walk the full length of them and look at the details.
This video is part of a series - 'The History of Byzantium goes to Istanbul.' In 2018 the listeners of the podcast funded a Kickstarter to send me to Istanbul. I documented many of the surviving Byzantine sites and have made videos about them.
I am now able to offer tours to Istanbul (and beyond) for listeners of the podcast. Email me if you'd like to know more (thehistoryofbyzantium at gmail.com).
Video edited by / suhlefilm
For more information about Byzantine Constantinople visit www.thebyzantinelegacy.com/. It's a fantastic website providing breakdowns of the Byzantine buildings that can still be seen today and there you'll find most of the still images and sketches used in these videos.
'The History of Byzantium' is a podcast telling the story of the Roman Empire from 476 AD to 1453. The podcast home page is here thehistoryofbyzantium.com/ and you can support the show at / historyofbyza. .
#constantinople #theodosianwalls #istanbul #byzantium #byzantine
I think it is a wonderful idea that the historic land area is used for growing local vegetables now....keeps it green, useful and unbuilt on. I am so glad to watch this video as I only walked the other half while there several years ago.
can you imagine how much blood was spilled onto that soil over the last few thousand years?
I can confirm, you ARE now able to visit the golden gate. I went there today and was giddily surprised to see that not only was the Yedikule Hisari museum open, but that you can walk in front of and up to the top of the golden gate. The cost was 100 Turkish Lira as of July 2023 and ABSOLUTELY worth it for any Byzantine history fan or anyone interested in history or architecture.
Amazing! Thanks for posting. I hope I can visit in September
I was there in 2013 and at that time I could walk on top of the Golden Gate. It just was no way to go through the gate to the other side. I had to go there through the cemetery. I heard that the reason for that was that the sultan who conquered the Constantinople was so superstitious that he permanently closed the doors. He was afraid of the last roman emperor to come in through the gate.
@@JohnWick_jr You can now walk in and around it and on top which is fantastic
Ancient walls surrounded by modern streetlights, airplanes in the sky, and a Deadpool 2 poster from 2018. There's something like an odd continuity about it.
I have walked along parts of the wall a few times but it’s my plan to finally do it from one end to the other on my next visit to Istanbul.
Amazing tour thank you
Good stuff Robin. Seeing some of the less photographed parts is always welcome.
I want to go there so badly, thank you for this.
Great job! This is something future generations will be able to enjoy
Thank you so much for creating this beautifully detailed video. I have been fascinated by the walls of Constantinople since I was a child, and really enjoyed this presentation. Someday I will see them for myself!
Thank you thank you thank you so very much for posting this! I've listened through the history of Byzantium 2 or 3 times by now and have been wanting to come along for one of your tours ever since I first heard of them, unfortunately they have been slightly outside my student budget. I do plan on visiting Istanbul as soon as I can, and these videos serve as great inspiration for a future visit!
Do you think with so many things going on now, would it be safe to visit Turkey.🇹🇷. It’s fascinating to visit Hagia Sophia and the walls since it was built by Roman Empire which I just learned recently.
Great video super informative. Going to Istanbul on Friday and these videos give a sense of the depth of history there! Fabulous thank you!
Have an amazing time. If you do want to climb the walls the spot you need to go up has now changed. Message me if you need more info
The name of the city is Constantinople. Constantin, the first Roman Emperor of Rome, embraced Christianity, and baptized at York of Britain, moved the Capital of his Empire from Rome, and himself gave the name New Rome to the new capital city. His successors honoring him after his death renamed the city to Constantinople. The name given to the city by Islamists Muhammadans is an attempt to erase the 1200 years of glorious of the Christian Roman Empire. Please don't submit to it. Also is a good idea not to use the islamic names of the locations and neighborhoods of Constantinople. Finally the term byzantine is also wrong. Non of the citizens or the Emperors named themselves byzantines, but Romans. Regardless these objections, the episode is very informative and I liked it very much.
Thanks a lot!
This was a really good video. Constantinople sure has some cool sights.
Wonderful
Man I wish I watched this video BEFORE going to Istanbul. Well done!
I wanted to visit Istanbul so badly. Didn’t know that there was Roman Empire stretching all the way to Turkey. 🇹🇷
What a great video. Waffle-free narration, good photos, and a good map, frequently re-shown, to illustrate where the photos were taken. I congratulate you on producing a tutorial which is an example of how TV programmes should be made [ but are not ]. Thank you.
So glad you enjoyed it
Perfect comment, couldn't agree more.
great video
I listened to a podcast this man went through the last siege of Constantinople day by day, the amount of detail he had was amazjng. The story about desperately repairing walls as they came down, tunneling and counter tunneling, repelling mass attacks and ensuring constant Canon fire...
I kind of like the mix of restoration and ruin. Makes you think what the time does to our heritage.
I've been there twice but still haven't seen everything. So many hidden details
In the History of Rome, it was discussed how the people’s sports fans were rallied to repair the walls before Attila, the Hun and his armies made it to Constantinople.
Fantastic video! One question I cannot seem to find an answer to, what calendar were they using for the inscription that references year 6946? Thanks!!
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine_calendar
14:40 Is that Leo the Khazar? With a Khazaria mother Cicek?
3:40 There were actually more sieges attempts but these are the major ones
There was an Advertisement for Dead Pool 2 in 2018 at 17:20.
I think the second wall was built in part because the population was expanding too fast for the old walls to enclose them.
Went there and walk on the walls
European architecture and engineering ❤️❤️
About the inscription on the wall, what language did it write on the wall, Latin, perhaps 🤔?
All inscriptions are in Greek except the one where I point out it's in Latin
please tell the Greeks that it was a ROMAN empire and not a GREEK empire. Thanks. @@TheHistoryofByzantiumPodcast
@@oghuzkhan5117 Indeed!
Subscribe bucause you mentioned the capital of the byzantine empire with the real name Constantinople 😂 I am byzantine of Anatolia by the way its my country
What calender starts 5508 bce? 13:44
The Byzantine calendar calculated the date from creation
@@TheHistoryofByzantiumPodcast thank you for answering, do you know how far back we have documentation for its use?
The first appearance of the term is in the treatise of a monk and priest, Georgios (AD 638-39), who mentions all the main variants of the "World Era" in his work@@Ugloke
From wikipedia :-)
@@TheHistoryofByzantiumPodcast thanks again, so its basicly his theory.
4th crusade in 1204 also attacked the wall, albeit not the land wall.
Why they criticize the reconstruction why
All they needed were cannons; would have outlasted the Ottomans. Modern restorationis fine. Keep it up!
I think you mean New Rome the City of Constantine. Byzantine is a term invented by the French 200-300 years ago; the citizens of New Rome called themselves Romans; so did the Turks--after capturing New Rome in 1453 the referred to the citizens as the "Rum Millet" which means the Roman nation/people.
ok
Such heavy restorations actually destroy the original wallwork, making it useless for archaeologists to study.
it appears that the tube-u-all has unsubscribed me...curse you alphabet (the tube-u-all's owner)
*THIS JUSTINIAN* Sorry my brain comes up with very stupid jokes.
Do you realize that at they very beginning of this video you said the " walls of Istanbul " ? Istanbul has never had anything to do with the construction of the wall built by Constantine. Details matter .
The walls of İstanbul(a good detail for u we can call this city tomorrow "x" even its not ur business to talk about it if u are not a Türk) were first built by the Megara tribe around Sarayburnu today. Later In the 2nd century, Roman Emperor Septimus Severus captured Byzantion and had the walls demolished as punishment and rebuilt according to his own architectural culture. YES DETAİLS MATTER.. I COULD GİVE U MORE BUT U ARE STUPİD.
City of the greeks/romans
☦️
Not byzantium. Roman emp.
I think you forgot the sack of Constantinople by the Crusaders in 1204 - they were the first to conquer the city not the Ottomans.
They didn't break through the land walls. They landed men on the sea walls
@@TheHistoryofByzantiumPodcast ok, I didn't know. Why didn't the Ottomans do the same? I think the crusagers were very impressed by the land walls and tried to imitate it somehow in castles like in Angers or at Caernarvon or simply by building double walls like at Carcassonne.
@@petrapetrakoliou8979 Yes I'm sure they inspired other defensive systems. I haven't gotten to 1453 yet in the podcast to know exactly what the Ottomans were thinking :-)
💙🇬🇷KONSTANTINOPEL💙🇬🇷
Cannot agree Part 1 should begin with the land walls since they are not the soul of first Capital of The Roman Christian Godfearing PAX ROMANA Empire Of CHRIST
most frustrating thing in the world to know this foreign invaders from central asia are sitting behind the most important walls of the entire western civilization an can keep them. hopefully god has other plans.
Açıkcası tanrının bunu umursadığını düşünmüyorum yinede orta asya soyundan gelen asil bir kana sahip olduğum için tanrıya şükürler olsun.
Were they Mongolian riding on horses for months to Istanbul?
@@maily8388 they was barbarian satanist mohamedans no matter from where they came
such ignorant remarks. You would just need to look at the faces of the people of Turkey to understand that we simply converted and adapted another way of life. The fall of Islampol to Islam was predicted by Mohamed PBUH 1000 years prior and it happened just as god had planned. You covet the lands of your neigbours and blood relatives just because of medieval fantasies shame on you to bring yet other war.
It’s not Byzantium, it’s ancient Roma in the East, and it’s not Istanbul, it’s Constantinople.
East roman empire theodosion walls . no body even themselves call byzantine empire. Enough of this lies
By'-zan-tyne. Con'-stan-tyne. 🇬🇧
1453 İSTANBUL...
Always is Constantinople