lar pentagon, four out of the five angles
of which are flanked by towers; the fifth angle had also a tower, but it
exists no longer. Its principal front is towards the west, and has,
besides the tower at one of the angles, two others, which stand on each
side the ancient triumphal arch of Constantine. The gate of entrance to
the Seven Towers on the side of the town is to the east, in a small
square. The longest side of the pentagon is that in which Constantine's
arch is included; while towers existed at all the angles, this side
presented a front of four towers; but it has now only three. The first
marble tower is an enormous mass, between eighty and ninety feet high.

The triumphal arch of Constantine, which occupies the centre between the
two marble towers, conducts to the golden gate in the exterior enclosure
of the castle. The arch was more than ninety feet in height; but it has
been so much injured by artillery, that no idea can now be formed of its
ornaments. In the second marble tower is the _Cave of Blood_: the first
door by which it is entered is of wood; this opens into a corridor of
twelve feet long by four feet wide, having at the end two iron steps
ascending to an iron door, and this leads into a semicircular gallery;
at its furthest extremity is a second iron door, which completes the
gallery, and ten feet further an immense massive door enclosing the
dungeon. In the midst of this sarcophagus is a well, the mouth of which
is level with the ground, and half closed by two flag-stones; to this is
given the name of the _well of blood_, because the heads of those who
are executed in the dungeon are thrown into it. In the same tower with
this dungeon is a staircase leading up to a number of cells; from some
of them, which are higher than the ramparts, the eye may be gratified
with a view over Constantinople through loop-holes pierced in the walls.
Here the Turks formerly used to confine those whom they call
_mouzafirs_, or hostages; but the latter have now the choice allowed
them of hiring more eligible apartments.

The first enclosure of the Seven Towers is inhabited chiefly by poor
Turks, who have houses, and live there with their families. They also
belong to the guard of the castle.

The air of the Seven Towers is in general unwholesome, and very likely
to produce scrofula. In the summer the walls, heated by the sun,
transform the place into a furnace; and the apartments on the first
floor are at all times