Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume V.djvu/280

 276 CONSTANTINOPLE tinople is very large. There are about 500 larger ones (jamihs), 100 of them in the old city pro- per, and the number of lesser ones (mesjids) is given at 5,000 ; but this is probably an exag- geration. Unrivalled in gorgeousness is the great Agia Sofia, formerly the church of St. Sophia, originally founded by Constantine in 325, rebuilt by Justinian in 532-'8, transformed into a mosque by Mohammed II. in 1453, and renovated by the architect Fossati in 1847. The edifice is built of light bricks, but through- out lined with colored marble ; its ground plan has the form of a cross, 350 ft. long and 236 wide ; the diameter of the dome measures 107 ft. ; the height from the ground to the cupola is 180 ft. The ceiling and the arches between the columns are inlaid with beautiful mosaic work and gilt ; the gallery, 50 ft. broad, is sus- tained by 67 columns, some of which are of green jasper, and are said to have been taken from the celebrated temple of Diana at Ephe- sus ; nine massive bronze portals are covered with the most artistic alto-rilievo work. Oth- er remarkable mosques are Kutchuk (Little) Agia Sofia, built by Justinian ; Kilisse Jamih (mosque of the churches), the burial place of several Byzantine emperors ; Exi Marmara Jamih (mosque of the six marble columns), said to have been a temple of Jupiter; the mosque of Mohammed II., with which are connected eight medresses (colleges), a hospital, an eating house for the poor, &c. ; the mosque of Sultan Ahmed, the only one that has six minarets ; the Sulimaniye, built by Solyman the Magnificent in 1550; the Shah Sadeh Jamih (mosque of the princes), and the mosque Nuri Osmani, in the vestibule of which stands a sarcophagus of porphyry, said to have en- closed the mortal remains of Constantine the are small and unimposing. The number of Mohammedan and Greek convents is consid- erable. No one of the numerous religious orders of the Mohammedans is without one or Ruins of the Aqueduct of Valens. Great. Constantinople is the seat of the pa- triarchs of the Greek and Armenian churches. The Greeks have 21 churches in the old city ; the prayer houses of the other denominations Ancient Cistern. more convents. Among the charitable institu- tions is a large number of imarets or soup houses, in which tens of thousands of persons are fed. There are 200 hospitals, in some of which Christians are provided for, over 2,000 public baths, and 40 khans (large enclosures, including warehouses and hotels). Two aque- ducts 9 or 10 m. long, built by the emperors Hadrian and Constantine, furnish the city with water. The cisterna basilica, constructed un- der Justinian, the roof of which rests upon 336 marble columns, is still used as a reser- voir. The number of primary schools in Con- stantinople, in which only reading and the prayers are taught, is over 1,000; the former secondary schools have been abolished, and replaced by adult schools for instruction in Arabic, rhetoric, mathematics, and history. Most of the mosques have their medresses. There are also several special preparatory schools for civil service, as the college of "the sultan's mother," inaugurated in 1850, and others. Popular education is still at a very low point, despite the reforms that have been introduced by recent sultans. The mili- tary academies are as yet the only educational establishments in which a systematic course of studies, according to the modern standard of science, is pursued. Besides these, there are a medical and a veterinary college, and a naval academy. There is a number of public li- braries, mostly connected with mosques, and some of them supposed to contain valuable old manuscripts. Among the suburbs of Con- stantinople only five are frequently mentioned, viz. : Pera, Galata, Tophana, Kasim Pasha, and Scutari, all but the last named on or near the European shores opposite Stambul, between the Golden Horn and the Bosporus.