Rumelihisari, looking out over the
Bosphorus.
The Rumelihisari is a fortress located between Sariyer and Bebek districts of Istanbul. It was built by Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II, in 1451, before he conquered Constantinople, to prevent Crusaders coming from the Black Sea. The land that the castle was built upon was techincally Byzantine territory and when the Byzantine emperor Constantine XI sent an embassy to Mehmed to protest the sultan had the ambassadors siezed and executed. Constantine then knew the construction of the castle was the prelude to an attack on his city which followed two years later.
See also
