Walkin the Walls

Hello all!
I guess I should probably give you, loyal readers, a break after yesterday's monstrosity. But the blog must go on.
Today was a very exciting day, because we finally got to walk the walls! Inhabited since the 7th century BC, Constantinople (today's Istanbul) was established as the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire in 330 by Constantine. In the fifth century, the Emperor Theodosius started the city's famous walls, circling the city on all three sides: the land walls, and the Golden Horn and Sea of Marmara sea walls. The sea walls are mostly in disrepair, but it is still possible to walk the route of the land walls north from Marmara to the Golden Horn- and that's what we did.
We started at Yedikule in the south, the 7 towered fortress that, like so much in Istanbul, was originally built by the Byzantines and elaborated upon by the Ottomans. Here's a bit of it:

Here's the view south:
On the horizon you can see all the supertankers waiting in the Marmara to go up the Bosporus into the Black Sea. There are these kinds of farms all around the walls today:
So besides lots of enigmatic inscriptions and carvings (these things have been around for a millennium and a half), what else was on the walls?

Well, a couple horses for one. Yet another Turkish mystery. The walls look like they do here in some places, are completely restored (in the past 10 years) in others, and are somewhere in between most of the time.
And, as always, adorable Turkish children, wanting their pictures to be taken.

Most of all though, incredible views, mostly from the restored towers. I tried to put these 3 pictures into a panorama, but it didn't work out. Use your imagination:
(looking southeast, towards the Sea of Marmara)
(looking east; you can see Hagia Sophia etc. in the background)
(looking northeast, over the Golden Horn, towards Beyoglu)

Oh also, we saw the grave of the oldest person who ever lived:
Afterwards, Kevin and I walked back toward Sultanahmet to go to the Spice Bazaar for some things. In all, we walked about 6.8 miles, according to Google. If you want to see a map of our trek with some ominous red continent labels on it, you're in luck:

A long day, but a thoroughly rewarding one; it's nice to be reminded that this city is, in so many ways, fundamentally Byzantine, and walking the walls is one of the best ways to do that. Thanks for reading, and I'll talk to you soon!