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The Big Bang
Gunpowder and Its Explosive Impact
The Theodosian Walls of Constantinople, the Queen of Cities, the bridge between East and West, were the stuff of legend. Constantine I started construction after his victory in the Battle of Chrysopolis in 324. When completed during the reign of Theodosius II, the walls provided multiple layers of defense. Attackers first encountered a fifteen-foot-deep, sixty-foot-wide moat. If they survived arrows hailing down on them while crossing the moat, they next encountered a twenty-five-foot-tall limestone and brick wall. There was a small stretch of cleared ground and then an impossibly tall wall, forty feet high and fifteen feet thick, buttressed by ninety-six towers.
As legendary as they were, these ...
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