Just past the fragments of tower and around the buses, we discovered a low spot in the wall... low enough to climb up. With a quick bit of clambering, we reached the top of the wall and look up and down. Where were we?
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| Looking around the tower, you can see a part of another building, the tops of buses and a bit of wall... a bit father on we'd find the low part of the wall. | Looking east from the top of the crumbled wall, we see a picture right out of the Eyewitness guidebook - this is the facade of the Palace of Porhyrogenitus! |
We knew where we were! Now what? Along the top of the wall was a well worn path... Richard wanted to explore, Stacy took one look at the little path, the crumbled stones and the long drop and said "I'll stay right here, don't be long."
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| At a low spot in the path, Richard turns round and takes a picture of Stacy, standing at the wide part of the path. | At the low spot in the wall, the wall opened up showing the remains of a small tower or rampart. The floor fell away a good twenty feet below here... | |
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| Further along the wall Richard spies the actual entrance to the palace - notice the padlocked gates! | Just before reaching the walls of the palace, Richard turns around again - Stacy is still waiting patiently. | |
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| Looking at the backside of the facade of the palace - things are looking a little rough here. | The north wall of the roofless palace. |
There was no easy way down to the floor of the palace, and there wasn't much there anyway, just grass and broken bits of marble. But there was something interesting in the back wall of the palace...
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| Ah ha! A dark opening in the back (eastern) wall of the palace... where could it lead to? | Looking back at Stacy through the doorway of the facade of the palace, the dark opening behind... |
Explore the dark passage or return to safety? Richard calls out to Stacy "There's something back here, I'm going to explore it, I won't be long!" Stacy just waves, but that special kind of wave that indicates "If you die in there, I'll kill you."
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| Peeking around the corner of the dark passage, this photo was taken using the flash. In actuality, the passage was pitch black. | Creeping carefully down the black passage and peeking into the room beyond. The chief concern? Turkish winos that don't like visits from tourists! | |
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| A look at the ceiling of the tower chamber... is this thing going to hold? | A peek through an arrow slit reveals bright sunshine outside. | |
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| A peek through the side window, which looks through a window of the ruined palace, which looks through another window of the ruined palace... | A photo taken of the entrance to the dark passage from the tower chamber, this time with the flash off... dark, innit? |
The tower chamber was full of dirt, candy wrappers, beer cans and smelled of urine. Obviously somebody's hang out. After all, if I was a teenager in Turkey, this is where I'd go to drink beer without my parents knowing about it. Couldn't stay too long, though - didn't want a panicked wife on the outside.
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| Back out of the dark passage, a look down at the back (eastern) wall of the palace. The dark passage is immediately to the right of this picture. | Stacy sits and waits with a somewhat relieved "I was about to phone the fire department" look on her face. | |
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| The grin of a man who has done something adventurous without annoying his wife! | Looking off the wall of the palace south, down the length of the crumbling City Walls of Theodosius. There's 6.5km more of this! | |
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| Back off the wall, looking at the palace on the left and the tower on the right. The space in between is where the dark passage is. The window on the left wall of the tower is where the photo through the windows was taken. | Around the other side of the palace, looking up at the other side of the back eastern wall of the palace. |
The design of this palace is based on 10th century principles, using marble and red brick together, which would make the palace over 1,000 years old. Apparently this palace, along with the Blachernae Palace were the principle residences of the imperial sovereigns during the last two centuries before the fall of Byzantium. The palaces were not destroyed in the siege of Constantinople: there are records showing the palace as a residence for tile craftsmen in the 17th century.