MOSQUE OF SULTAN BAYAZET. 109
PLATE: THE SEA OF MARMORA. (From the Seraskiers Tower.)
Immediately beneath it lies the court of the Palace, with the noble dwelling of the Seraskier, the long range of grated prisons, and the green tents of the guard, forming a pigmy encampment; the dome and minarets of the Mosque of Bajazet appear beyond the walls, beside the clustering and far-reaching roofs of the Tchartchi; and this is, perhaps, the only point from which the traveller can form a just estimate of the immense extent of the far-famed Bazârs of Constantinople. but it is the distance - the stretch of sea and shore, of isle and mountain, of lake and forest, of light and shadow - the infinite variety, the surpassing majesty of nature in her brightest and most beautiful of garbs, which make the pulse bound, and the brow burn, as the traveller looks down and around him; awe-struck, spell-bound, and silent drinking in deep draughts of loveliness, and seeming to revel in a new existence!
On one side, the city of Constantinople is spread out beneath him like a map; and he gazes on its thousand domes, and its five thousand minarets; its majestic maples dwindled into bushes; and its dark cypresses seeming like finger-posts indicating the scattered resting-places of the dead - upon its busy khans, its crowded Tchartchi, its luxurious palaces, and its gloomy prisons. The hand and mind of man are visible throughout, and human pride swells high during the contemplation of human power; but let the gazer move a few paces onward - only the next window - and he will be instantly rebuked. There stretches away the sea of Marmora - the sunny Propontis - with its rocky islets, and its glittering waves, dancing beneath the bright blue sky; Mount Olympus, stately with its crown of snow and its mantle of vapour, perceptible on the verge of the horizon; and the glorious Bosphorus, winding between its rich and peopled shores, guiding his vision onward to the Sea of Storms. Another move, and the Golden Horn is before him; a thousand barks safely moored within its land-locked limits, pouring forth the riches of other lands, or lading with the treasures of this; the flag of many nations flying proudly at their masts, and the voices of many lands swelling upon the breeze. When his eye is sated, and his mind is satisfied with this spirit-stirring scene, a few feet onward he will find a spot whence he may repose his excited vision on the dark and arid rocks which enclose the lovely "Valley of the Sweet Waters;" the most delicious spot of earth that ever was cinctured by a mountain-girdle; and lose himself in fancy amid its woods and waters, the golden-latticed chambers of its summer palace, and the veiled beauties who inhabit them.
Such is a faint outline of the majestic and varied scenes to be enjoyed at the expense of the fatigue attendant on mounting the three hundred and thirty steps of the Yanguen Kiosque - a physical exertion which is forgotten at the first glance from its dizzy height upon the fairy wonders of the surrounding objects;