11. Araştırma Sonuçları Toplantısı - Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı

On the basis of these maps, levelling was carried out to correct someminor errors and to provide further details in areas of interest.Second; retaining walls at the edge of the terraces were identifiedand the vertical heights recorded. This enabled us to draw a plan basedon the spot heights, checked and expanded, and the major drops (Photo3).Finally, a contour survey map was drawn up by Mr. Roger Ainslieusing the information gained from the first two phases.One Problem particular to this part of the City is the difficulty in definingthe ground levels, since the terraces are largely composed of vaults.Therefore, in drawing up the map, the top of the vaulting was takenas being ground level, rather than the bottom of the vaulting.The terracing of the area, as it is drawn in the new contour map, coincideswith the two main terraces, Upper and Lower Terraces, identifiedin the First Report of the Walker Trust excavations in 1947 2 (Photo 4).The Upper Terrace includes the Esplanade of the Blue Mosque, ArastaSokağı and Torun Sokağı, as far as the Peristyle of the Mosaics. The LowerTerrace slopes gradually down to the sea after the Peristyle. The terracingalso coincides with their further division in six terraces-, which ihad derived from an accurate analysis of the heights above sea level ofthe buildings in the different sites recorded in Mamboury and Wiegand'sSurvey of 1934 4 (Photo 5). Analysis of the drawings of the single sites ofthis survey enabled us to: identify the floor of the substructures and thefloor above substructures, where, presumably, the Emperors walked; tolocate these floors at their respective ground levels, on the basis of theheight above sea-level of the single buildings as deduced from the generalplan of the site and accompanying sections; finally, to place the resultingfloors of the different sites, now identified by height above sea-level,İn realtionship to one another and locate them on the respective terraces.This enabied us to conclude that each of these main terraces is further dividedinto three terraces at intervals of approximately five metres.Site A of Mamboury and Wiegand's Survey (near to St. Sophia) containsthe crucial evidence for the identification of these five-meter inter-(2) G. Brett-G, Martiny-R.B.K. Stevenson, The Great Palaee of the Byzantine Emperors. FirstReport 1935-1938, Edinburgh 1947, p1.59.(3) E. Bo1ogncsi Recchi-Franceschini, The Great Palaee of Constantinople; Ground Levels,Main Phases ofDevelopment and Areas ofActivity, JÖB, in press.(4) E. Mamboury-Th, Wicgand, Die Kaiserpalaesıe von Konstantinopel, Berlin und Leipzig1934.20