What were you doing when you were twenty-one years old?

If I had to highlight just one apsect of my life at that age, I would choose the most amusing. I was attending Rastafarian prayer meetings. No, really.
There were about thirty dreadlocked Rastas and two white kids from Ohio crammed into an efficiency apartment in the ghetto in Baltimore, Maryland. You can probably guess why we were there. I can assure you it had little to do with Marcus Garvey.

Sultan Mehmed II conquered the city of Constantinople, effectively sticking the proverbial fork in the Byzantine Empire and, in fact, ending the rule of the old Christian guard, all at the age of twenty-one.

I think most of us agree that the Sultan wins THIS death match.

Sultan Mehmed became Sultan at a very young age and quite frankly, no one expected very much of him. They thought him too green. Even his enemies believed him to be no threat to the Christian strongholds in the nearby Balkans and Aegean. Guess he showed us, eh?

On May 29th 1453, Sultan Mehmed II took control of the city of Constantinople; a massive blow to Christendom and to an empire that had survived 1,100 years. This is the story that is told at the Panorama 1453 History Museum.

I will give you a helpful note right off the bat: when you approach the window, do not speak any language besides Turkish. Turks pay 5 lira and foreigners pay double that. When we were told this, I jokingly protested in Turkish,which got me some giggles, but not a reduced fare. That ship had sailed.
Also, there is no English on the panels, but you can purchase one of those pre-recorded tour guide systems for another 5 lira. This worked great for me except when I was in the middle of listening to a story and I noticed the boyfriend was talking to me. There was thusly a lot of pausing and head phone removal throughout my tour.

I’d like to provide some basic details for those who are unfamiliar with this moment in history and/or may never visit this museum.

The seige wasn’t an easy task despite the fact that the Ottoman troops (80,000) far outnumbered the Christian defenders (7,000). Constantinople was believed to be the most fortified city in the world thanks to about twenty kilometers of walls protecting it.

In a lesser-known detail, the fate of Constantinople might have laid in the hands of a Hungarian founder named Orban. He had built a giant cannon, the likes of which had never been seen, and he went to Emperor Constantine XI offering it to him. But when the Emperor could not come up with the funds required to purchase the weapon, Orban took his business elsewhere.

It was Mehmed II who found the means.

By April 2nd 1453, the Ottoman army was camped outside the city walls. Because the Christian forces were so sparse, they concentrated the majority of their forces at the middle section of the land walls, where they feared attack was most imminent.

The Ottoman fleet could not pass through the Golden Horn to approach the city by water because a heavy chain had been placed across the bay.
Eventually, this was cleverly circumvented by the Sultan. He ordered the construction of a road of greased logs and on April 22nd, the troops rolled their ships in.

Fire ships had been sent by the Christians to take care of what was left of the Ottoman fleet. Unfortunately for them, they had already heard about the plan and were laying in wait. The Christian troops suffered great losses here.

This had a two-pronged negative effect for the Christians. For starters, the presence of the Ottoman fleet cut off their relief supplies from Genoese ships. And two, more forces then needed to be sent to the Golden Horn, thus weakening sections of the wall.

Serbian engineers built tunnels for the Ottomans in an attempt to gain entrance to the city. But the Emperor Constantine hired a German engineer who constructed counter-mines and many Ottoman troops were killed this way. Eventually, two Turkish officers confessed the locations of all of the tunnels under torture and they were all destroyed.

The Sultan could sense that morale was low inside the city walls. He offered to end the seige if the city would be handed to him. Emperor Constantine declined that offer. He was still under the hope that relief would be arriving from the West.

As the war raged on, there was also some dissent amongst the sultan’s viziers (main advisors). Halil Pasha, known to be a dedicated servant, vehemently urged the Sultan to end the seige and retreat. It was later discovered that Halil Pasha was being bribed by the Byzantines and he was put to death.

And here are a few key dramatic scenes for the blockbuster movie based on this event:

On May 22nd, the moon (the symbol of Constantinople) emerged as a dark eclipse; seemingly fulfilling a prophesy of the city’s demise.
Four days later, the city was enveloped in a thick fog, which was unheard of in that part of the world at that time of year. The very next day, Constantine XI received the news that no relief ships were coming to their aid. Doom seemed ever looming on the horizon.

On May 26th, the Ottoman war council met to make the preparations for the final assault. On May 28th, Ottoman soldiers were given a day of prayer and rest. Behind the city walls, the Christians engaged in large scale religious processions in the streets. A solemn ceremony was held at Hagia Sophia. And some time after midnight, the final attack began.

It is said that the Christians were successfully holding even the sultan’s elite corps, the Janisseries. But when the Genoese general was killed, the troops panicked and scattered. It is reported by some historians that the Ottomans found an unlocked gate and gained entry, at last, into the city.
It is thought that Emperor Constantine cast off his regal garments and joined his soldiers for the final assault and that he was killed alongside them. But his body was never found and so we can never know for sure.

The panorama itself is the crowning achievement of the museum. After reading the panels, you walk up a spiral staircase into a dome. There you will find a mural representation of this dramatic world event; breath-takingly painted, complete with audio recordings of Turkish battle music (Mehter). We lingered for quite a long time soaking it all in. It was well worth the visit.