Bulgarians and Ottoman Turks, as well as mass fatalities from the Black Death, had weakened the Byzantine Empire and the population within Constantinople itself dropped from 400,000 in the 12th ...

The Siege of 1453 was a defining moment for Constantinople and the world. The city, once considered impregnable, faced the formidable forces of the Ottoman Empire led by Sultan Mehmed II.

John Julius Norwich tells the dramatic story of the fall of Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire, followed by the rise of the Ottoman Turks in the 15th Century. Using monuments in Istanbul to ...