Istanbul Gallery

Defeat of the Saracenic Fleet Before Constantinople, (717-718), 1890. Creator: Unknown

Defeat of the Saracenic Fleet Before Constantinople, (717-718), 1890. The Siege of Constantinople (717-718) a combined land and sea offensive by Muslim Arabs of the Umayyad Caliphate against Constantinople and the Byzantine empire.The Arab fleet was almost completely destroyed by natural disasters and Byzantine attacks. From "Cassell's Illustrated Universal History, Vol. III - The Middle Ages", by Edmund Ollier. [Cassell and Company, Limited, London, Paris and Melbourne, 1890. ]

© The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Interior of Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, Turkey, 19th century. Creator: Unknown

Interior of Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, Turkey, 19th century. View of carved wooden minbar and Islamic texts inside the building while it was a mosque. Built in the 6th century by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian, the Hagia Sophia (Aya Sofya) was intended to be the greatest church in Christendom. It remained the centre of the Byzantine Empire and the Eastern Orthodox Church until 1453 when Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks. It was then converted into a mosque, which it remained until secularised and turned into a museum by order of Kemal Ataturk in 1934

© The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The south dome of the inner narthex of Kariye Djami ( St Saviour in Chora )

The south dome of the inner narthex of Kariye Djami ( St Saviour in Chora ). An image of Christ is at the apex of the dome while forty-six ancestors of Christ are shown in two zones below. Country of Origin: Turkey. Culture: Byzantine. Date/Period: 12th C. & later embellishments. Place of Origin: Istanbul. Credit Line: Werner Forman Archive/ . Location: 3D

© Werner Forman Archive / Heritage-Images