The city of Galata is shaped like an open fan, of which the tower,
placed on the crest of the hill, represents the pivot. This tower is
round, very lofty, dark in color, and terminates in a conical point
formed by a copper roof, directly beneath which runs a line of large
glazed windows, forming a sort of gallery enclosed with glass, where
a lookout is kept night and day ready to give warning of the first
appearance of fire in any part of the immense city. The Galata of the
Genoese extended as far as this tower, which stands on the exact line
of the walls which once divided it from Pera--walls of which at
present no trace remains;[F] nor is the present tower the same as
that ancient Tower of Christ, erected in memory of the Genoese who
fell in battle, having been rebuilt by Mahmûd II., and prior to that
restored by Selim III.,[G] but it is none the less a monument to the
glory of Genoa, and one upon which no Italian can gaze without feeling
some pride at the thought of that handful of soldiers, merchants, and
sailors--haughty, audacious, proud, stubborn--who for centuries floated
the flag of the mother republic from its summit and treated with the
emperors of the East as equals.
[F] A few traces of these walls may still be seen near the Galata
Tower.--TRANS.
[G] The Galata Tower, called in the Middle Ages the Tower of
Christ or of the Cross, was built in 1348, probably on
the foundations of an earlier Byzantine tower ascribed to
Anastasius Dicorus, and in the present century was repaired
by Mahmûd II.--TRANS.
[Illustration: Tower of Galata.]
Immediately beyond the tower we came upon a Mussulman cemetery.