Constantinople : capital of Byzantium / Jonathan Harris.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Harris, Jonathan.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Istanbul (Turkey)--History--To 1453.

Istanbul (Turkey).

Physical Description:

xvii, 289 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

London : Hambledon Continuum, 2007.

Summary:

For most visitors, the most memorable sight of Constantinople was its cathedral of Hagia Sophia. Sheer size was part of it. The building was topped with an enormous dome thirty-two metres across and over fifty-five metres high... So vast was the space enclosed with no apparent means of support that the dome seemed almost to float in the air... From the forty small windows around the base of the dome, sunlight suffused the building from different angles at different hours of the day, shining in from the upper windows and illuminating the gold mosaics and marble columns with dazzling light.

Contents:

The city of wonders

Founding fathers

Defence

Palaces and power

Churches and monasteries

'Two thirds of the wealth of this world'

Democracy

The beginning of the end

The ruin of Byzantine Constantinople

Epilogue: Byzantine Constantinople today.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 255-275) and index.

ISBN:

9781847251794

184725179X

OCLC:

156891508