CHAPTER XXII.

Khans-Cashmere Shawls-Baysesteen-Burnt Column-Egyptian Obelisk-Brazen Tripod-Column of Porphyrogenitus-Mosque of Achmet -Toorbay of Abdulhamid—Anecdote-Humanity to the Brute Creation.

THE khans in Constantinople form a conspicuous feature in this oriental capital. These massy buildings originated in the benevolence of wealthy individuals, who raised them for the accommodation of travelling merchants. The difficulty of procuring lodgings, or a suitable place to display and vend their wares, formerly rendered such buildings peculiarly necessary, and a trifling bakshish, or present, to the porter was all the compensation required. In the course of events, trade was managed in a different manner, and these khans became individual or corporate property. Merchants now rent apartments in them, and many become permanent residents. I stepped into one of them this morning to execute a commission with which I had been charged upon leaving home. It is a noble building of stone, and fireproof, 300 feet long, and 100 broad, built round a court, three stories in height, with open galleries in the interior. There are said to be no less than 180 of these khans in the city of various sizes.

The ground-floor of the khan which we entered was occupied by a row of coffee-shops. In the second floor was a rich display of jewelry, while the third contained an endless variety of Cashmere shawls. The demand for these articles was formerly greater among the Turks than at present; for no one of any consideration could be seen in public without an expensive turban of Cashmere, and another to be used as a girdle. Unfortunately for the lovers of the picturesque, these expensive fooleries are now

generally laid aside by good society, and of course their value is much diminished. We were shown superb shawls at the price of $300, which five years ago would have readily sold for $800 or $1000. The most valuable, perhaps we should say the most costly, of these shawls are twelve feet by four feet wide, and of so fine a texture as to pass through the compass of a finger-ring. They are constantly kept in screw presses, which preserves their gloss, and gives them a new and fresh appearance. This khan is on ground so uneven that we passed out of its third story immediately into the street.

Not far from this is a baysesteen, which term originally designated a cloth market, but the building is now devoted to other purposes. It seems to be occupied chiefly by druggists, and differs from other bazars only in being of a more lofty and solid construction. These, together with the bazars, are under the guard of kayhaiyas, or officers appointed by government, and are considered, particularly the baysesteen, to be places of such safe deposite, that the Turks are in the habit of entrusting there their most valuable effects. The property of widows and orphans is likewise frequently placed there for safe keeping.

Our course next led us past an unsightly monument, called, very appropriately, the Burnt Column.* It is said to have been originally 120 feet high, and was surmounted by a statue of the Trojan Apollo, which represented the Emperor Constantine himself. The Greeks have a tradition that Constantine deposited under its base a nail of the true cross, and a bit of bread which formerly belonged to one of the five miraculous barley loaves; hence it was formerly considered as a sacred spot, and every one who rode past, not even excepting the emperor himself, alighted to pay it homage. The base is of white marble, eighteen feet high, and apparently circular; but

this we could not determine, as it has been walled up ever since the great fire of 1779 in this neighbourhood. The column itself is composed of solid blocks of red porphyry or jasper, each about ten feet high, and twelve feet in diameter, and, when perfect, must have been one of the most imposing structures of its kind in the world. It is now a ruined, tottering mass, kept together by several iron bands, and blackened and defaced by frequent conflagrations. On the summit is a marble capital, carved above, with an inscription which, upon the authority of Wheeler, is said to purport that it was repaired by one of the Comneni. This worthy traveller must have been endowed with extraordinary powers of vision, for none of us could decipher a single letter of the inscription from any spot in its vicinity. Having satisfied our curiosity by examining this remarkable monument, which has withstood repeated conflagrations, and the corroding influence of fifteen centuries, we hastened to the chief object of our visit.

The vivid description of the Hippodrome in the pages of Gibbon had left such an impression, that, when my companion exclaimed "This is the Atmeidan," I could scarcely credit the evidence of my senses; and yet here was the Egyptian obelisk, and its miserable rival the column of Porphyrogenitus, and between them the remnant of the brazen tripod from which were once delivered the oracles of Delphi. There could be no mistake, for these were the monuments which established its identity. We were in a small unpaved and sandy area, 350 paces long, and nearly 100 paces broad, and surrounded by high buildings, which had the effect of making its actual dimensions appear still less. Under the Greck emperors it was termed the Hippodrome, and was then much larger, for the burnt column was contained within its precincts. Careless travellers have given it various names, such as Ocmeidan, or the place of arrows, and Etmeidan, or the place of meat; but its true appellation is Atmeidan, or place for horses, a translation of

its Grecian name.* On its south side it is bounded by the peristyle, or screen of Achmet Djammissi, or the magnificent mosque of Achmet, and on the opposite side by large buildings, of which the most conspicuous are the menagerie and the palace of Ibrahim Pacha, now the head-quarters of the cavalry staff. Towards the eastern extremity of the Atmeidan is the Egyptian obelisk, said to have been brought from Rome by Constantine when he laid the foundation of the Eastern Empire. This superb monolith is said to be sixty feet high, and, at its base, is twelve feet in diameter; it is of the red Egyptian granite, and the carved hieroglyphs look as fresh and as sharp as if they were cut but yesterday. The specific gravity of this granite is 2.65, and hence its approximative weight must be 100 tons. One is naturally led to inquire how such an enormous mass could have been transported in the first place to Rome, and subsequently to Constantinople. The small size of the vessels of that era, and the imperfect acquaintance of the ancients with navigation, would seem to preclude the idea of its having been transported in a single vessel, and the union of two or more vessels appears scarcely more probable. Charnock, in his History of Naval Architecture, seems, however, to lean towards the idea of a large vessel having been employed for this purpose. He mentions that Constantine had caused an immense obelisk, 115 feet high, and weighing 1500 tons, to be floated down the hill from Heliopolis to Alexandria, intending to adorn with it his new seat of empire. Death, however, frustrated his intentions, and his son caused it to be transported to Rome. "It is to be regretted," adds Charnock, "that no particulars have been given of this vessel, which in size must have exceeded any ship of the line now in existence." We might add, that if such a vessel had been constructed,

* The Ocmeidan is on the other side of the Golden Horn behind Tatavola, and is still used for the exercises of the bow. The Etmeidan is in the centre of the capital, where the Janizaries formerly received their rations.

an account of such an Herculean task would undoubtedly have been transmitted to posterity. The immense rafts of timber from the Black Sea floating down the Bosphorus, under the guidance of several ships, and capable of sustaining thousands of tons, suggested the idea that a similar contrivance had been adopted in the transportation of this and other obelisks.

The supposed labour of quarrying and preparing these gigantic monuments has been much overrated. The mcchanical skill required was inconsiderable, and the manner of operating, in all probability, has for ages been the same. In our own day we have an opportunity of ascertaining the amount of labour expended upon a similar monument in Russia. The monolith erected in honour of the Emperor Alexander is twelve feet in diameter, and eighty-four feet high. This required the labour of six hundred men for two years.

In the work of Champollion it is remarked, that a translation of an Egyptian obelisk by Hermapion has been handed down to us in the text of Ammius Marcellinus, which was supposed to relate to some obelisk at Rome.* This text has been applied in several ingenious ways to the obelisks at Rome, by various persons who have attempted from it to form a system of Egyptian writing. Champollion was the first to prove that this translation could not apply to any obelisk now in Rome. With a view of ascertaining whether this might not be the very obelisk alluded to by Hermapion, I copied the various cartouches on its sides, in order to compare them with the hieroglyphics of Champollion. The cartouche on the south side agrees nearly with the royal title of the first king of the twenty-second dynasty of the Pharaohs. There is also the royal title of Sesostris, the first king of the nineteenth dynasty of the

* These obelisks were placed near the portals of the ancient Egyptian temples. Their inscriptions mention by what kings they had been constructed, and sometimes a detail of the execution of the obelisks themselves.