The Theodosian Walls

Rain Walls 1 Walls 2

Carcassonne, I said to Elaine when I first saw the extraordinary land walls of Byzantine Constantinople – and then Peter said that the French stronghold’s walls had been modelled on Constantinople’s. Rain was sluicing from the heavens as we picked our way around the walls, built between AD412 and 422, during the reign of Theodosius II. Not long after, in 447, an earthquake destroyed no less than 54 of the towers, but they were promptly rebuilt – because Attila the Hun was on the warpath. It wasn’t until May 1453 that Mehmet the Conqueror breached the walls, although Eyewitness Travel’s Istanbul notes that successive kept them in good condition until the end of the 17th century.