Travels in Turkey, Asia Minor, Syria, and across the desert into Egypt ...

SYRIA, EGYPT, GERMANY, &C. 39
Sight of the mint, where the workmen were busily employed. It
is situated within the enclosure. The silver coin has been debased
to a very extraordinary degree, the silver it contains having been
progressively reduced to about thirty parts
in an hundred. This
adulteration is said to have been introduced in aid of the public re-
venue; and as the coin still retains its ancient nominal value, the
consequence has been, that the counterfeit money of the forgers is
become of greater value than that issued from the public treasury,
notwithstanding the dealers in this illicit traffic turn their speculation
to a very good account.
From the mint I walked to the vicinity of the mosque of Santa
Sophia, which is certainly a very massive building, but which, considered
in an architectural point of view, is, in my opinion, very
inferior to our St. Paul's. With the exception of the dome, and
of the four minarets which are detached, there is nothing very sin-
gular or striking in the pile.
I proceeded thence to the atmeydan, the place or field of horses,
or, as it was anciently called, the hippodrome, a very extensive
open space or circus, set aside for athletic exercises and public
spectacles. Here the Turks exhibit a kind of military sport, called
the djarid. The combatants are mounted, and armed with a stick or
wand of a considerable length, which is darted with great force by
the assailant, and as skilfully avoided by his antagonist. This ex-
ercise is very much in vogue among the Turks of condition. In
the middle of this space s-auds an antique column or obelisk, of a
single block of granite,
the sides of which are filled with various
Egyptian figures and hieroglvphics. One of our party undertook
to measure it, which he accomplished by a calculation drawn from
a comparison between the shadow of a stick and that of the column,
the height of which was found to be about sixty feet. The
base is about seven feet in height, and is curiously sculptured in
bas-relief with a great variety of human heads. At the extremity
of the square there are the remains of a pillar, formed by the twist-
ing of three brazen serpents. Formerly their heads made the capital
of the pillar. Mahonlet the second, when he took Constanti-
nople, beat off the jaw of one of these heads.
Passino- through a street, we came to another large and elevated
antique column, called the Burnt Pillar, which, amidst the confla-
grations that liave so frequently occurred, and have unfortunately
so much ravaged the city of Constantinople, has stood its ground.
It has, however, a very dingy hue, and a considerable number ot