Seven hills of Istanbul
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Istanbul is known as the City on the Seven Hills (Turkish: Yedi tepeli şehir). The city has inherited this denomination from Byzantine Constantinople which – consciously following [citation needed] the model of Rome – was built on seven hills too.
The seven hills of Constantinople
The seven hills, all located in the area within the
Byzantine
period, each hill was surmounted by monumental religious buildings (churches under the Byzantines, imperial mosques under the Ottomans).
Ist
The first hill on which the ancient city of
Sultan Ahmed Mosque and Topkapı Palace
.
IInd
On the second hill are to be found the
Babiali on the east Eminönü
.
IIIrd
The third hill is now occupied by the main buildings of Istanbul University, the Bayezid II Mosque to the south and the Süleymaniye Mosque to the north. The southern slopes of the hill descend to Kumkapi and Langa.
IVth
The fourth hill on which stood the
Aksaray
on the south.
Vth
On the fifth hill is the
Balat
on the shore of the Golden Horn.
VIth
On the sixth hill is the
Ayvansaray. Its gentle slopes run out beyond the line of the defense walls
.
VIIth
The seventh hill, known in Byzantine times as the Xērolophos (
Theodosian Walls and the Marmara. It is a broad hill with three summits producing a triangle with apices at Topkapı, Aksaray, and Yedikule
.
See also
References
Sources
- Janin, Raymond (1964). Constantinople Byzantine (in French) (2 ed.). Paris: Institut Français d'Etudes Byzantines.