The straits of the Bosphorus are
terminated by the Cyanean rocks, which, according to the
description of the poets, had once floated on the surface of
the waters, and were destined by the gods to protect the
entrance of the Euxine against the eye of profane curiosity.
From the Cyanean rocks to the point and harbour of Byzantium
the winding length of the Bosphorus extends about sixteen
miles, and its most ordinary breadth may be computed at
about one mile and a half. The _new_ castles of Europe and
Asia are constructed on either continent upon the
foundations of two celebrated temples of Serapis and Jupiter
Urius. The _old_ castles, a work of the Greek emperors,
command the narrowest part of the channel, in a place where
the opposite banks advance within five hundred yards of each
other. These fortresses were destroyed and strengthened by
Mahomet the Second when he meditated the siege of
Constantinople; but the Turkish conqueror was most probably
ignorant that near two thousand years before his reign
Darius had chosen the same situation to connect the two
continents by a bridge of boats.
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