THE EUXINE AND THE BOSPHORUS IN STORY, MYTH AND LEGEND
_The Pontic Sea,_
_Whose icy current and compulsive course_
_Ne’er feels retiring ebb, but keeps due course_
_To the Propontis and the Hellespont._
SHAKESPEARE “Othello.”
Our entrance into the Black Sea was through the well-jettied Sulina
Canal--a canal which, for a great part of its length, passes through a
reed-covered lowland which is so near sea-level that, when the Danube
is in flood, vast stretches of it are completely under water. The delta
of the Danube, which has an area of about one thousand square miles,
has been built up by the immense accumulation of mud and sand which
has been brought down by the great river and its numerous affluents
from the rain-drenched Balkans and Carpathians and from the far-off
snow fields of the Carnic and Rhætian Alps. The rate at which the delta
is encroaching on the sea may be judged from the carefully conducted
investigations that have been made, which show that the amount of earth
discharged at the mouths of the Danube totals several thousand cubic
feet a minute. For many leagues out from land the earth-colored water
of the Danube is easily distinguished from that of the Euxine. This
alone enables one to realize the extent of the erosion going on in the
Danube basin and the immensity of the deposit that is daily laid on
this part of the bed of the Black Sea.
As myth and legend hover over the Danube from its source to its delta,
so do they also linger along the western shore of the historic Euxine.
Even before we have left the earth-colored flood which pours into it,
we descry in the distance the little island of Fido-Nisi--Serpent
Island--so called from the great number of snakes which are said to
infest its sea-lashed cliffs and about which, from time immemorial,
Russian and Turkish sailors have told the most fantastic stories.
_In antiquity it was known as Leuce--_
_“Leuce, the white, where the souls of heroes rest.”_
According to Homer, the ashes of Achilles, the hero of the
_Iliad_, were placed in a golden urn and deposited in a tumulus on
the promontory of Sigeum in the Troad. This elevated headland, visible
far out on the Ægean, served as a landmark for passing mariners. Later
poets, however, inform us that the body of Achilles was snatched from
the burning pyre by Thetis, his goddess-mother, and transferred to
the Island of Leuce where, with his bosom friend, Patroclus and other
heroes,[28] it was speedily worshipped by the Greeks who here erected a
temple in the hero’s honor. For this reason Leuce was long known as the
Island of Achilles.
The Greek historian Arrian in his _Periplus of the Euxine Sea_,
written in the form of a report to the Emperor Hadrian, says:
Some call this the Island of Achilles, others call it the
chariot of Achilles, and others Leuce, from its color. Thetis is
said to have given up this island to her son Achilles, by whom
it was inhabited. There are now existing a temple and a wooden
statue of Achilles of ancient workmanship. It is destitute of
inhabitants and pastured only by a few goats which those who
touch here are said to offer to the memory of Achilles. Many
offerings are suspended in this temple, as cups, rings and more
valuable gems. All these are offerings to Achilles. Inscriptions
are also suspended written in the Greek and Latin languages.
Some are in praise of Patroclus, whom those who are disposed to
honor Achilles treat with equal respect. Many birds inhabit
this island, as sea gulls, divers, and coots innumerable. These
birds frequent the temple of Achilles. Every day in the morning
they take their flight and, having moistened their wings, fly
back again to the temple and sprinkle it with the moisture,
which having performed they brush and clean the pavement with
their wings.... It is said that Achilles has appeared in time
of sleep both to those who have approached the coast of this
island and also to such as have been sailing a short distance
from it and instructed them where the island was most safely
accessible and where the ships might best lie at anchor. They
also say further that Achilles has appeared to them not in time
of sleep, or a dream, but in a visible form on the mast, or at
the extremity of the yards, in the same manner as the Dioscuri
have appeared. This distinction, however, must be made between
the appearance of Achilles and that of the Dioscuri, that the
latter appear evidently and clearly to persons who navigate the
sea at large, and, when so seen, foretell a prosperous voyage,
whereas the figure of Achilles is seen only by such as approach
this island.[29]
A short sail southwestwardly from the island of Achilles brings us in
view, on our starboard, of the important seaport of Constanza. It is
located at the eastern extremity of Trajan’s wall and had a special
interest for me because its site is near that of Tomi to which the poet
Ovid was banished by the Emperor Augustus. The privations which he had
to endure on this distant boundary of the Roman Empire and the miseries
of his life among the barbarians on the shore of the Euxine are
graphically described by the poet in his _Tristia_ and _Letters
from Pontus_.
The climate of this inhospitable place was trying indeed to the
disconsolate exile who had just come from the palace of the Cæsars and
who had so long enjoyed all the delights of the Roman capital. For
here, to his eyes, the fields were without verdure, the spring without
flowers, and snow and ice were eternal. The long hair and beards
which concealed the visage of the rude Sarmatians, among whom he was
compelled to live, clicked with icicles. Wine froze and had to be cut
with a sword. According to Ovid’s account the cold was more severe in
his time than it was during the memorable arctic winter many centuries
later when the temperature fell so low that the Euxine was frozen over
for weeks and the ice on the Bosphorus was so thick that people were
able to pass on foot from the Asiatic to the European shore.
It was in this cheerless and frigid region, far from home and friends,
that one of Rome’s greatest poets spent the last eight years of his
life and here it was that he died. Before his death he had expressed
a wish that his ashes, enclosed in a modest urn, should be taken to
Rome in order that he might not be an exile after death, as he had been
during so many years of his life, but his request was not granted.[30]
A tradition exists that a tomb was erected to his memory in Tomi, but
there is among scholars as much doubt respecting the existence, or
location of such a tomb, as there always has been regarding the reason
of the poet’s banishment by one who had showered on him so many and so
great favors.
According to a legend that Ovid recalls in one of his elegies, Tomi
was a place of ill omen, for it was here that Medea murdered her
brother and strewed the sea with his carved limbs. And it was from this
atrocious fratricide, according to the poet, that the town of Tomi took
its name:
_Inde Thomis dictus locus hic, quia fertur in illo_
_Membra soror fratris consecuisse sui._[31]
From the most remote antiquity the Euxine has been noted for the fury
of its tempests and for the reputed terrors of its navigation, as well
as for the savage character of the inhabitants on its coast. For this
reason the ancients called it _Pontus Axenus_--the inhospitable
sea. Subsequently, as if to placate its fury, by an euphemism, it was
called the _Euxine_--the hospitable sea--a name which it has since
borne.
But the first name given to this extended body of water was simply
_Pontos_--the Greek word for sea--as if it were the sea _par
excellence_. The noted traveler, Giovanni da Piano Carpini, a
Franciscan friar, and Ricoldo da Monte di Croce, a Dominican missionary
in the Orient, called it _Mare Magnum_--the great sea. In the
_Itinerarium_, however, of Blessed Oderic of Pordenone it bears
the name _Mare Majus_--the greater sea--as it does also in _I
Viaggi_ of Marco Polo who calls it _Mare Maggiore_. But this
is not all. Friar Jordanus speaks of it as the Black Sea--_Mare
Nigrum_, as likewise does Sir John Mandeville who gives it the name
_Mare Maurum_--_Mauros_, in Byzantine, as in Modern Greek,
signifying black. But there was, probably, no better reason for calling
this sea black than there was for giving to certain other well-known
seas the epithets of red, white, and yellow. From all this it appears
that what we now know as the Euxine or Black Sea has been rich in names
as well as in myths and legends.[32]
The Euxine, however, is famed not only for legendary associations but
for having been for centuries a section of the great highway between
the Occident and the Orient. It was by this route that Fra Oderic of
Pordenone, that celebrated missionary of the fourteenth century, made
his wonderful journey from Venice to China and other parts of the
Far East. It was by the same route that Marco Polo--the most famous
traveler of the Middle Ages--returned from his long peregrinations in
eastern Asia to his home in the Queen City of the Adriatic. And it was
by way of the Euxine that Marco Polo’s father and uncle had preceded
him to far-off Cathay where they were most cordially received by the
famous Kublai Khan.
It was also for ages an important link in one of the world’s great
commercial highways. From time immemorial there were three great trade
routes which connected India and China with Europe. One was the Persian
Gulf route which ran from the mouth of the Indus to the Euphrates and
along this latter river to Zeugma, or Thapsacus, whence it proceeded
to Antioch and other ports of the eastern Mediterranean. The second
was the sea route which went from India along the Persian and Arabian
coasts to Aden, thence by the Red Sea to Alexandria and Tyre and Sidon.
The third was the great overland route which started from Bactra--long,
like Babylon, a market-place for the races of the world and a great
emporium for Indian and Chinese commerce--and reached the West by two
roads. One was the caravan route which crossed Parthia and Mesopotamia
and ended in Antioch. The other passed down the river Oxus to the
Caspian Sea and thence to the Euxine. This is the trade route that has
the greatest interest for us at present--a route that served as one of
the world’s chief commercial highways for more than two thousand years.
Long before Alexander made Bactra his base for the invasion of India,
long before the Greek Skylax of Karyanda made his famous voyage from
the mouth of the Indus to Arsinoe on the Red Sea, and many centuries
before Hippalus made his epoch-making discovery of the existence of
the moonstones of the Indian Ocean, which immensely augmented the
ocean-bound traffic between India and Egypt, a very large volume of the
luxuries of the Far East found their way to the Occident by the great
Oxus-Caspian-Euxine trade route. And while the ships of Tarshish and
_Quinquiremes of Nineveh from distant Ophir,_
_Rowing home to haven in sunny Palestine,_
_With cargoes of ivory and apes and peacocks,_
_Sandalwood, cedarwood and sweet, white wine,_
were bringing to Syria and the Land of the Pharaohs treasures from the
coast of Malabar and
_The spicy shore_
_Of Araby the blest_,
interminable caravans and countless merchantmen were always busy along
the Oxus-Caspian-Euxine route bearing to Byzantium and Athens and Rome
silks from China and Bengal; muslin and other stuffs from Benares and
Kotumbara; tortoise-shell from the Golden Chersonese; indigo from
Sind; drugs, spices, cosmetics, perfumes, pearls, beryls, and precious
stones from other parts; costus from Cashmere; pepper from Malabar;
gums, spikenard, lycium, and malabathrum from the forests of the
Himalayas; and sapphires, rubies, and aquamarines from Burma, Siam, and
Vaniyambadi.
What was the volume of this trade between the Orient and the Occident,
especially after the establishment of the _Pax Romana_ under
Augustus, may be gauged by the fact that the unprecedented demand by
the fashionable world of Rome for all kinds of eastern luxuries for a
while seriously imperiled the imperial finances. In the single item of
aromatics for funerals, the extravagance indulged in seems incredible.
At the obsequies of Sulla, before the time of Augustus, more than
twelve thousand pounds of precious spices were consumed, while Nero
had more expensive aromatics burnt on the funeral pyre of Poppœa than
Arabia produced in a year.
When, after the destruction of Bagdad by Hulaku Khan, Tabriz in Persia
became the great political and commercial city of Asia, it was by the
Euxine that the merchant princes of Venice and Genoa conducted their
commerce with the Middle and Far East. Passing through the Hellespont
and the Bosphorus, their galleys proceeded to Kaffa in the Crimea
which was their chief _entrepôt_ on the Euxine. From this point
the enterprising traders continued their course by way of the Sea of
Azov, the Don, and the Volga to a port on the Caspian Sea. Thence
their caravans started on their long overland journey over lofty
mountains and through vast deserts and hostile nations to far distant
Cathay in quest of the highly-prized commodities of Chinese kilns and
looms. Other traders went directly by sea from Kaffa to Trebizond
whence they journeyed over broad, arid plains to Tabriz. Here their
numerous caravans were laden with the rich fabrics of Persia and the
rare products of India and the Isles of Spicery. From these centers
of Asiatic traffic, long lines of patient camels transported their
precious burdens to ports on the Euxine where a fleet of Genoese and
Venetian galleys was waiting to receive the merchandise collected at so
much risk and at the cost of so much labor and which was subsequently
distributed among the expectant marts of southern Europe.[33]
Before embarking at Sulina for Constantinople, I almost dreaded the
voyage to the Bosphorus. From the time of the Argonauts the tempestuous
Euxine has been a byword among mariners and the dread of travelers
who have to trust themselves to its storm-lashed waves. In the words
of Ovid its fury was inferior only to the turbulence of the fierce
barbarians among whom he was exiled. I had prepared myself to endure
for a day all the horrors which characterize a rough passage across the
English channel. Nor were my fears entirely groundless. The sea was
heavy,--the weather was squally. Many of the passengers, unwilling to
trust themselves on deck, sought the seclusion of their staterooms. As
for myself, I did not feel reassured until we had finally entered the
more protected waters of the Bosphorus. Even at the entrance of this
famous channel the voyager may, at times, experience great discomfort.
Byron states the reason in the well-known stanza of Don Juan:
_The wind swept down the Euxine, and the wave_
_Broke foaming o’er the blue Symplegades;_
_’Tis a grand sight from off “The Giant’s grave”_
_To watch the progress of those rolling seas_
_Between the Bosphorus, as they lash and lave_
_Europe and Asia, you being quite at ease;_
_There’s not a sea ..._
_Turns up more dangerous breakers than the Euxine._[34]
_Inter utrumque fremunt immani turbine venti._
_Nescit cui domino pareat, unda maria._
_Nam modo purpureo vires capit Eurus ab ortu;_
_Nunc Zephyrus, sero vespere missus, adest;_
_Nunc gelidus sicca Boreas bacchatur ab Arcto;_
_Nunc Notus adversa praelia fronte gerit._
_Tristia_, lib. L, Elegia II.
The “blue Symplegades,”--at least what is left of them--to which Byron
here refers, are famous for their connection with one of the oldest and
most interesting of Greek legends--that of the Argonauts. According
to the story which Apollonius of Rhodes has so well developed in his
_Argonautica_, the Symplegades were two floating and ever-clashing
rocks, at the junction of the Euxine and the Bosphorus, which were
fabled to close upon and crush all ships that attempted to pass between
them. When Jason with his fifty-oared ship, the _Argos_, and his
fifty heroes set out for Colchis to fetch back the golden fleece he was
obliged to pass between these great colliding rocks. Thanks, however,
to the instructions he had received from the seer, Phineus, who had
been delivered from the tormenting Harpies by two of the Argonauts,
he was able to effect this hitherto impossible passage and to proceed
without interruption to his destination.
After this event the eyotlike rocks became fixed in the positions they
now occupy. The one, however, on the Asiatic side of the Bosphorus has,
owing to the action of the elements, long since disappeared beneath the
waves. The other, on the European side, is also rapidly disintegrating,
and soon will litter the floor of the sea. But the story of the
Argonauts and the Golden Fleece will endure as long as men shall retain
a love for the fascinating in myth and legend and the beautiful in art
and literature.
Although the Cyanean Islands--as the Symplegades are now called--and
the shores of the Euxine are exceptionally rich in places and things
of great historic and mythological interest, they are in this respect
surpassed by the Bosphorus. Nowhere in the world do myth and legend,
traditional associations and historic souvenirs cluster in such numbers
and varieties as they do about every rock and bay and promontory of
this famous waterway that connects the Euxine with the Sea of Marmora.
Even the names bestowed upon this channel have been manifold. To the
ancients it was variously known as the Mouth, the Throat, the Door, and
the Key of the Euxine. To-day it is frequently called the Narrows, or
the Strait or the Canal of Constantinople. But the appellation which is
still the most popular and that by which it is usually designated is
that which has its origin in one of the earliest of Greek legends. As
expressed in English, the name, which signifies Cow-Ford, or Ox-Ford,
seems very prosaic, but the legend on which it is based has always
been a favorite with poets and artists.
Io, the beautiful priestess of Hera at Argos, was loved by Zeus and
was, in consequence of the jealousy of the goddess, metamorphosed
into a heifer. Arriving at the eastern side of the strait, so the
fable runs, she plunged into its swiftly-flowing waters and swam to
the European shore. And from that time to the present, this famed
watercourse has been known the world over as the Bosphorus.
On the promontory of Anadoli Kavak on the Asiatic side of the
Bosphorus, we get a view of the site of Hieron which was long regarded
as one of the most sacred places in the pagan world. Covered then
with gorgeous temples dedicated to the twelve greater gods it ranked
as a place of pilgrimage with Delphi and Olympia. The most imposing
and sumptuous of these temples was said to have been founded by Jason
and consecrated to Zeus Urius, in thanksgiving for the safe return of
himself and his fellow Argonauts from their successful expedition to
Colchis. Within it stood a priceless statue of Zeus made of ivory and
gold, at the base of which was a slab, now preserved in the British
Museum, on which were inscribed the words:
The sailor who invokes Zeus Urius that he may enjoy a prosperous
voyage either toward the Cyanean Rocks, or on the Ægean sea,
itself unsteady and filled with innumerable dangerous shoals
scattered here and there, can have a prosperous voyage if first
he sacrifices to the god whose statue Philo Antipater has set
up, both because of gratitude and to insure favorable augury to
sailors.
But unlike Delphi and Olympia where there is still, thanks to the
labors of French and German archæologists, very much to remind one of
the past grandeur of these historic places, “not a stone upon a stone”
remains on the site of Hieron to attest to its former splendor and
majesty. As in so many other parts of the world, the temples of Hieron
served as quarries for peoples of a later age who knew not the gods of
Olympus, or who had a special interest in consigning them to oblivion.
And where, in days of yore, the clouds of incense and the smoke of
sacrifice, in the most superb of temples stimulated the fervor of vast
multitudes from far distant lands, the traveler to-day finds nothing
of the pristine glory of Hieron except what nature gave it--its superb
site and its enchanting vistas of the Bosphorus and the Euxine.
After the fall of paganism, Hieron had many vicissitudes. Having been
converted into one of the strongest fortresses on the Bosphorus, it was
time and again singled out for attack by the enemies of the Byzantine
Empire. Among the most celebrated of them was Harun-al-Rashid who led
an army the whole way from Bagdad with a view of effecting the conquest
of Constantinople and with it of the Byzantine Empire. At a later date
Hieron and the stronghold on the opposite side of the Strait fell into
the hands of the Genoese. Not long afterwards it was captured by the
Sultan Bayazid I, “the Thunderbolt,” and since then it has been in the
possession of the Turks.
A short distance to the southwest, on the European shore, is a
beautiful valley where the Crusaders are said to have encamped on their
way to the Holy Land. A colossal plane tree is here seen which bears
the name of “Plane tree of Godfrey of Bouillon,” from a tradition that
it was planted by this famous hero of the Christian host.
At Roumeli Hissar, we reach the narrowest point of the Bosphorus
and one which is most rich in historical associations. According to
tradition, it was here that Xenophon and his immortal Ten Thousand
crossed over into Europe after their famous retreat from the heart
of Babylonia--a retreat which, revealing, as it did, the military
weakness of the Persian Colossus, paved the way for the victories of
the Granicus, the Issus, and Arbela and for the conquest of Asia by
Alexander the Great.
Here, too, it was that Mandrocles of Samos constructed the bridge of
boats that enabled the vast Persian army under Darius to cross into
Europe at the time of that monarch’s disastrous campaign against the
Scythians. Mandrocles was so elated by his achievement that he had it
commemorated in the temple of Hera, in his native Samos, by a picture
with the inscription:
_The fish-fraught Bosphorus bridged, to Juno’s fane_
_Did Mandrocles this proud memorial bring;_
_When for himself a crown he’d skill to gain,_
_For Samos praise, contenting the Great King._
But a large volume would be required to give even a brief notice of
the countless myths, legends, traditions, and historical souvenirs
which cluster about the shores of the Bosphorus from the Euxine to
the Golden Horn. They have been the scenes of tragedies and romances
and intrigues without number. From the dawn of history the Bosphorus
has been constantly a bone of contention among rival and conflicting
interests and an important factor in many of the great wars that have
convulsed Asia and Europe. And until a plan shall be elaborated for
eliminating international jealousies and harmonizing the antagonistic
policies and aspirations of many peoples of divers races and creeds, it
is not probable that the future history of this unique waterway will be
materially different from that of the past. Altruism among nations has
so far been confined to words and, from present indications, the day is
far distant when it will be revealed in deeds.
It is not, however, through its legendary and storied past that the
Bosphorus makes its strongest appeal to the ordinary traveler. It is
rather through its scenic beauty--the enchanting vistas it everywhere
offers on both the Asiatic and the European shore. These have for ages
been celebrated in song and story and few who have been privileged
to gaze on them will say that their praises have been exaggerated.
From whatever point the Strait is viewed it is picturesque in the
highest degree and exhibits all along its course countless objects of
exhaustless interest.
Almost the entire distance from the Euxine to the Golden Horn one sees
bordering the Bosphorus an almost continuous succession of kiosks,
palaces, chalets, bungalows, mosques, and minarets. There are the
imposing homes of ambassadors accredited to the Sublime Porte, the
luxurious residences of the wealthy pashas and merchant princes of
Stamboul, the superb marble palaces of sultans and sultanas, all
surrounded by inviting groves and artistically laid-out parks rich in
flowers and trees from many climes. Here and there in shaded glens and
verdant dales are picturesque villages and hamlets whose quaint wooden
houses form a striking contrast to the magnificent structures which are
in their immediate vicinity.
Of the many beautiful valleys that debouch into the Bosphorus is that
of the Great Geuk Su--Sweet Water--on the Asiatic side which appealed
to me most strongly. Its clumps of balmy pines, somber cypresses, and
graceful mimosas and its romantic groves of wide-spreading planes,
sycamores, magnolias, and beech trees whose pendent branches dip
into the crystal stream present rarest pictures of sylvan charm and
loveliness. They forcibly reminded me of similar spots of scenic
beauty which, years before, had so fascinated me in the far-famed
Vale of Tempe in northern Thessaly. Emptying into the same bay as the
Great Sweet Water is the Little Sweet Water and the valleys of these
two enchanting streams together with their common bay constitute the
so-called “Sweet Waters of Asia.”[35] Their attractive groves and
greenswards have long been a favorite pleasance for Ottomans and Greeks
as well as for foreign residents of Constantinople.
But what most interested me in this heart-gladdening spot was the
countless groups of merry and beautiful children who had been brought
here by their mothers and nurses for an outing. They seemed to be
everywhere. Running and leaping, laughing and shouting, singing and
dancing, vanishing among the bushes and suddenly reappearing in the
broad greensward, their little forms were perfect pictures of restless
energy and unalloyed happiness. Many of the boys and girls were dressed
like children one sees in the Bois de Boulogne and their features were
just as fair. Nowhere in the East did I see a more animated or a more
charming scene except, perhaps, on the embowered banks of the Sweet
Waters of Europe on the upper reaches of the Golden Horn.
And the mothers seemed to enjoy themselves fully as much as their
children. Some sat quietly conversing under the umbrageous trees while
others were enjoying a pleasant row in their light and gaily decked
caiques. Most of them were garbed in the _tcharchaff_, a cloak and veil
of somber color, but a few still retained the graceful _feridgi_ and
_yashmak_ which were formerly in almost universal use among the Ottoman
women of the well-to-do classes.
To eastern poets the Sweet Waters of Asia are quite as dear as was the
Vale of Tempe to the ancient Greeks. For to the poets of the East this
spot is a veritable paradise on earth and far surpasses the vaunted
attractions of the celebrated groves of Damascus and the sun-kissed
meadows of Shaab Beram in Southern Persia. It supplies, in fullest
measure, three of the Moslem’s chiefest delights--umbrageous trees,
flowing water, and sweet repose.
The poet must have had some such an enchanting spot in mind when he
sang:
_The land of the cedar and the vine,_
_Where the flowers ever blossom, the beams ever shine;_
_Where citron and olive are fairest of fruit,_
_And the voice of the nightingale never is mute;_
_Where the tints of the earth and the hues of the sky,_
_In color though varied in beauty may vie._
Space precludes more than a passing reference to the sumptuous palaces
which adorn the bay-indented shores of the Bosphorus. Of these
magnificent edifices Yildiz Kiosk--Palace of the Star--is noted as
having been the favorite place of residence of the Sultan Abdul-Hamid
II. It is a large structure of white marble and from its commanding
site on a grove-clad hill it affords one of the most gorgeous panoramas
to be seen anywhere along the matchless Bosphorus.
At the foot of the hill on which stands the palace of Yildiz Kiosk
is seen what is undoubtedly one of the most grandiose palaces in the
world. It is known as the Serai of Dolma Baghtcheh and was built by
the Sultan Abdul-Medjid. His Armenian architect, Balian, was given
_carte blanche_ in the matter of expenditure and style of
architecture. Only one condition was imposed on him by the Sultan and
that was that the completed structure should surpass in magnificence
every other imperial palace in the world. Architecturally it is a
strange combination of Greek, Roman, Moorish, Turkish, Persian, and
Renaissance styles and exhibits both interiorly and exteriorly what
is most admirable in the noted palaces of the Louvre, Versailles, the
Schönbrunn in Vienna, the Winter Palace in Petrograd, and the imperial
palace of the Kremlin in Moscow. With the Ionian-blue Bosphorus as
a foreground and the Imperial Park clad in perennial green as a
background the snow-white palace of Dolma Baghtcheh, with its delicate
lace-like carvings, is, indeed, in the words of an enthusiastic
writer, “a pearl placed between a turquoise and an emerald, each jewel
multiplied in size and loveliness many million-fold.”[36]