The Route taken in carrying the Turkish Ships across the Hills from the Bosporus to the Golden Horn.

Owing to the conflicting statements of contemporary historians on the subject, the precise route followed in carrying the Sultan’s ships, across the hills, from the Bosporus to the Golden Horn, is not fully settled. So far, indeed, as the point at which the ships reached the Golden Horn is concerned, there can be little, if any, room for doubt, though the historians differ even on that matter. The most reliable testimony, however, and the configuration of the territory on the northern side of the harbour, are in favour of the view that the Bay of Cassim Pasha was the point in question. Critobulus [868] names the point the Cold Waters, [869] and describes it as situated at a short distance from Galata (Ψυχρὰ Ὕδατα, μικρὸν ἀπωτέρω τοῦ Γαλατᾶ). Nicolò Barbaro [870] designates it as the Harbour of Pera, or Galata—“Abiando tragetà dentro dal porto de Constantinopoli ben fuste setantado, e redusele in porto dentro del navarchio de Pera”—and explains the possibility of the occupation of a point so near Galata by the excellent relations existing between the Turks and the Genoese: “E questo perchè lor Turchi avea bona paxe con Zenovexi.” At variance with these statements, Ducas [871] says the ships were launched into the harbour opposite Eyoub (Cosmidion), but that is contrary to all the probabilities of the case. Phrantzes [872] sheds no light upon the question.

In regard to the starting-point from the Bosporus, there is general agreement that it was somewhere on the shore between Beshiktash and Top Haneh; Andreossy [873] being singular in supposing that the vessels left the Bosporus at Balta Liman. Now, there are four ravines or valleys that run inland from the shore between Beshiktash and Top Haneh towards the ridge dividing the Bosporus and the Golden Horn: the valleys of Beshiktash, Dolma Bagtchè, Sali Bazaar, and Top Haneh, which reach the top of the ridge, respectively at Ferikeui, the Municipal Gardens, Taxim, and Asmali-Medjid Sokaki. And the decision of the question which of these valleys was the one actually selected by the Sultan will depend partly upon our estimate of the respective merits of the historians whose testimony has to be considered, and partly upon the comparative suitableness of the various routes to serve the object in view.

Of the four routes indicated above, the two which proceed, respectively, by the valley of Top Haneh and the valley of Dolma Bagtchè present, both on the ground of history and natural fitness, the strongest claims for consideration.

In favour of the Top Haneh route, there is, first, the fact that it was the shortest route; and secondly, that its length corresponds to that which Critobulus [874] assigns to the road taken by the ships across the hills, viz. eight stadia, or one mile. Accordingly, Dr. Dethier [875] and Dr. Paspates [876] maintain that the Sultan’s ships were transported from the Bosporus to the Golden Horn by way of Top Haneh, Koumbaradji Sokaki, Asmali-Medjid Sokaki, and the Petits Champs.

On the other hand, the Dolma Bagtchè route has in its favour, first, the statement made by several historians, including Critobulus himself, that the point on the Bosporus from which the ships started to cross the hills was near the Diplokionion, the name for Beshiktash in Byzantine times. Ducas [877] describes that point as situated to the east of Galata, below the Diplokionion. Pusculus [878] speaks of it as not far from the twin columns: “Columnis haud longè a geminis, surgunt quæ ad sidera rectæ.” Nicolò Barbaro [879] is, if possible, even more explicit. According to him, the levelling of the road across the hill above Pera commenced from the shore where the columns, and the station of the Turkish fleet, were found: “Siando tuta la sua armada sorta a le colone, che sun mia de luntan de la tera, fexe che tute le zurme muntasse in tera, e fexe spianar tuto el monte che son de sopra a zitade de Pera, comenzando da la marina, zae da li da le colone dove che era armada.” Critobulus, [880] as already intimated, styles the starting-point of the expedition the Diplokionion. Now, the Diplokionion was not at Top Haneh, but at Beshiktash, and the harbour of the Diplokionion must have been the bay which formerly occupied the site of Dolma Bagtchè. [881]

In the second place, in the Dolma Bagtchè route we have the distance which Nicolò Barbaro [882] declares was traversed by the Turkish ships in their overland passage, i.e. three miles: “Comenzando de la marina, zae da li da le colone dove che era armada, per infino dentro dal porte de Constantinopoli, che son mia tre.”

Great weight attaches to the testimony of Barbaro upon this point; for Critobulus was not present at the siege, while Nicolò Barbaro was surgeon of one of the Venetian galleys which took part in the defence of the chain across the entrance to the Golden Horn, kept a diary of the incidents of the siege, must have taken particular interest in the movements of the Turkish fleet, and was in the way of obtaining the best available information on the subject. Certainly, if the transport of the Turkish ships started from a point so near the chain and the Greek and foreign ships guarding it as the site of Top Haneh, Barbaro had every opportunity to know the fact, and it is inexplicable how he could have made the mistake of representing another locality as the scene of the achievement.

With Barbaro agrees another competent witness, Jacques Tedaldi, a Florentine merchant, who took part in the defence of the city, and who gives the distance over which the ships were carried as from two to three miles: “Fit porter de la mer par terre deux ou trois milles, de soixant dix a quatre-vingts gallées que aultres fustes armées, dedans le gouffle de Mandraquins qui est entre les deux citez, auxquieuls est le port de Constantinople.” [883]

If, in the next place, we judge between the two routes by their comparative fitness to facilitate the accomplishment of the Sultan’s design, the Dolma Bagtchè route can claim the superiority in that respect. Had the matter of distance been all the Sultan required to consider in choosing the road for his ships, the decision would necessarily have been in favour of the Top Haneh route. But, surely, other matters also had to be taken into account. It was desirable, for example, that the route should be situated where all the preparations necessary to effect the passage could be readily made, where they would be beyond the reach of interference on the part of the Greeks, where they would, as the conveyance of the ships by night proves was the Sultan’s wish, be screened from hostile observation, and result in taking the enemy by surprise. All this was impossible at the site now occupied by Top Haneh, which stood but a short distance outside the chain and its guard-ships. There the Sultan’s preparations—the levelling of the ground, the laying down of sleepers and planks along which the cradles carrying the ships were to be drawn, the gathering of seventy to eighty vessels, the army of men collected to draw the ships out of the water and overland,—would be too much in the public eye to satisfy the requirements of the case.

On the other hand, although the Dolma Bagtchè route laboured under the disadvantage of being longer than the road from Top Haneh, the distance it presented was not excessive, while it offered ample compensation for the additional efforts which its greater length occasioned. It started from the usual station of the Turkish fleet in the Bosporus, where all requisite means for executing the Sultan’s purpose could be obtained with the least difficulty, where no attack was to be apprehended, where the presence of a large number of ships would excite no suspicions, and where, it was reasonable to expect, the great secret could be kept as long as necessary. From the point of fitness to serve the scheme contemplated, the route from Dolma Bagtchè had most to recommend it, taking all things into consideration.

Turkish historians do not afford any assistance to solve the problem under discussion. Evlia Tchelebi pretends that the ships were not brought from the Bosporus, but that some of them were constructed at Kiathaneh, the Sweet Waters, at the head of the harbour, and others at Levend Tchiflik (probably the Kutchuk Levend Tchiflik situated, in old Turkish times, high up the longer arm of the Dolma Bagtchè valley, not the Levend Tchiflik above the head of the valley of Balta Liman); and that the latter portion of the flotilla was carried to the Golden Horn by way of the Ok Meidan behind Haskeui, and the gardens of the Arsenal (Tersaneh Bagtchessi). Another Turkish authority says the ships were transported from Dolma Bagtchè to Cassim Pasha.