"Istanbul - a tale of two cities
Richard Godwin Richard Godwin
27 May 2011
The city walls of Constantinople were famously impenetrable. A millennium's worth of would-be invaders perished at their base until the Ottoman armies of Mehmet II breached them in 1453 and found a new name for the conquered city: Istanbul. They're still pretty treacherous. As my friend and I climbed some higgledy-piggledy steps to the top of the ruined fortification on a clear winter morning, a man with a suspicious moustache and an armful of piping called to us: 'Hayir!' That means no. He pointed out that the staircase we were climbing ended in a sheer drop: an Escher-esque optical illusion had blinded us to this abrupt fact. 'Better!' he said, gesturing towards a steeper ascent, though one that at least had the benefit of not throwing the triumphant climber to an absurd and painful death. "
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