Podcasts · The Story of Turkey: From Byzantium to the Ottoman Empire to Today — Fexingo History
Theodosius' Harbor: Istanbul's Lost Port
· 5:57 · S5 E212
Episode Theodosius' Harbor: Istanbul's Lost Port
Long before the Grand Bazaar or the Ottoman docks, Constantinople's lifeblood flowed through a harbor built by Theodosius I in the late 300s. This episode digs into the Theodosian Harbor — its construction, its role in feeding the city, the massive slave trade that passed through its quays, and the Byzantine ships that docked there. We follow its slow decline into a silted-up marsh, only to be rediscovered in 2004 during a metro excavation beneath Yenikapı, yielding the largest shipwreck collection from the ancient world. Along the way we meet the harbor's neighbors: the church of St. John the Baptist, the neighborhood of Samatya, and the bustling wharves that connected Constantinople to Egypt, the Black Sea, and beyond. A story of trade, empire, and the earth that swallowed a port whole.
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Transcript
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