Litchfield enquirer., 1877-05-17
sCoNsTANTIMoPLE.


 [We have been allowed to publish the following interesting private letter from an officer of the .Gettysburgh at Con stantinopls:- ED. Eso. zaP nAsaksss a4 sss's
 STEAMER GErrYsBURGH,
 Constantinople, Turkey, April 5, TT. {
 The voyage through the Archipelago and along the shores of Greece was very interesting. Near Sicily we saw Strom- boil, the light house of the Mediterranean. and Scylla and Charybdis, and passed close to the Island of Cerejos where Aph. rcdite is said to have risen from the sea- foam. The shores of Greece are rocky and bold, but there is something that awakeHs deal of sentiment that is want ing in far more favored regions. We reach ed the Dardanelles in good time and as- cepded the ancient Hellespont with the shores of Europe and Asia on either hand. A crowd of associations are clustered around this sacred ground which it is inn possible to review in a brief space. We think of Xerxes the Great, and Leander, and of the hundred battles that have been fought near by. The site of Troy is not far of. and for ages it has. been the battle-ground between Mussulmen and Christians. These shores, alas, once so fer tile, have been ravaged to state of deso- 1ofi OAo hrSr Sr the bay of Constantinople with the pala- ces. towers, domes and minarets of the ia nous city brilliant in the early sunlight, beautiful scene, hardly surpassed m the world.
 This city for more than four centuries the seat of Islanism, is most thoroughly oriental in it's character, and as seen from the water resembles a vision from the f'Thousand and one nights" The Gold en Horn is ore of the most picturesque sheets of water, crowded with shipping of every description. With the older and more commercial part of the city on it's banks. it divides the Turkish. quarter call ed Stamboul from the more European. portionsI Iof Pera and Galatia, and the Bos- phorus, with many palaces along it's shores, separates Pera and Galeta from Leutaria. This vast city, with its sub- urbs, has more than million of inhabi- itants; it is built on seven hills and GOV CTS great extent of ground. The numer- ous mosques, with their splendid domes and graceful minarets, many hundreds feet high, the quaint old houses, the rich palaces and the dark solemn groves of cypress, present picture that seen from the sea is very lovely. But, once on shore, and the bright delusion vanishes. Filth, squalor, narrow crooked streets, crowds of dirty Turks. stenches of every degree of vileness, troops of bowling, hungry dogs, ana general uIsvIoo. ~-a confusion =. duce us at once to state or uncomror- table reality. But in spite of these many disadvantages there is world of interest here, and one is brought face to face with the very antipodes of our Western people and customs. cannot pretend to de- scribe the ever changing varieties of dress and feature that meet at every turn, the crowds of soldiers. yelled women, priests, merchants, eunuchs, and wild Tartars, that fitly represent the descendants of the builders of Babel. No difference in lan- guage is more strongly marked than the varieties of physiognorny. dress and man. ners that one sees here, and it defss de- scription.
 The once proud city of Constantine. built upon the site of Byzantenm, and once the centre of culture and of the Christian faith, has, since it's conquest by the Ottomans in 1453, lost most of its European characteristics. The Greek churches, once the most beautiful in the world, have either been turned into Mo- hammedan places of worship, or are used for secular purposes. The palaces of the Greek Emperors have entirely disappear ed, and, save ruined walls, there is but little left of the works of the founders. But there is one striking exception, at least. to this remark. and. singularly enough, there still remains quite intact ] one of the finest specimens of Greco-Ro- man art and perhaps the first Christian temple ever built, mean the church of St. Sophia, The ancient hippodrome is still preserved, with an obelisk from Egypt, the brass serpents that formed the tripod of the oracle at Delphi, column erected by Constintiue, and the pyramid of Constantine Porphyrogenetes. These are the most celebrated antiquities of the city, but, with the exception of st. So- phia, the fanaticism of the Turk has gone ha nd in hand with time to work their ruin.
 Like myself, you have no doubt read much of. St. Sophia and are cnrious to know something of it from an eyewitness. Lthink in this case, at least, the reality surpasses the an.icipation--I have visited it twice and have never seen before such a beautiful edifce. The present church was built by the Emperor Justinian in in about the 9th century of our era. It was the creation of the most distinguish ed architects of the time, and nothing was spared to add 10 it's perfection. Even the angels are said to have contributed to it's completion. Its dome is but little less in diameter than that of St. Pauls, and is 183 it high. and the of it's interior is of marble and porphyry. and other valua- ble stones. The treasures of the most scele- brated mines were collected to add to it's beauty and magnifcence. and saw several columns from the famous temple Diana at Ephesus. The plan of the church is in the form of a cross; an immense gal. lery of marble extends around the nave, supported by columns of the richest By zantine designs, while the several wings, each roofed by a great dome, all blend rv,k<, AI, -t