City of Countless Names- Tophane p2

Tophane-i Amire

Across the fountain square a short distance from the Bosporus shore, near the foot of Pera’s hill, Turkish craftsmen labor furiously in the foundry which earns Tophane its name. Operational, since 1455, the Tophane-i Amire (meaning Imperial Gun House) produces the cannons desperately needed by the Turkish military. Once their artillery struck fear into nearby nations, but their technology failed to advance alongside European industry. Ottoman gunsmiths still make their cannons of brass which distorts with repeated firing, though it is simple to recast.

A complex of low domes and turrets cover the foundry’s roof and allow heat to escape from the blazing works below. Within its high walls, only columns and arches divide its vast open interior, but the industrial machinery needed to mass manufacture cannons, gun-carriages, small arms, and ammunition leave mere walkways between workshop to workshop across the length of the building. Fresh air breezes through broad latticed windows high over the gunsmith’s heads slightly dispersing the smell of cooling brass and gunpowder. Open pits, channels for molten metal, and water cisterns in the floor force visitors to watch their step.

The sultan recently provided Tophane-i Amire with rows of the latest British industrial equipment for the smelting, casting, boring, and stamping of weaponry curtsey of Maudsley, and Nasmyth of Manchester. Despite the craftsmen’s quick proficiency with these machines, the foundry cannot possibly match the needs of the Ottoman military, but there is hope that far older technologies may help turn the tide. Certain massive guns cast in the 1400s were used to great effect against the British Navy as recently as 1807. Now, Turkish gunsmiths and mages hope to reinvigorate the old bombards for use against the Russians in the Crimea.

The ground under Tophane-i Amire once held temples of worship for two Greek goddesses: Artemis, the virginal deity of the hunt, wild beasts, and the moon, and Aphrodite, the less virginal deity of beauty, love, and sex. Strange indeed, that a goddess armed with a bow, and another whose son, Eros, was similarly armed, were once worshiped at a place now devoted to firearms.

The Docks of Tophane

The rotten wood of Tophane’s crumbling docks, entire sections of which have fallen into the waters of the Bosporus without replacement, disillusion most first-time travelers to Constantinople. Gaps between planks and mold lined holes catch the legs of the unwary, and a broken leg might be more favorable to some than a plunge into the discolored waste-filled waters.

A constant flotilla of sixty to seventy clean and brightly painted caiques float in the filthy muck around the dock awaiting fares to Skutari, Stambul, or other sights up the Bosporus and the Golden Horn. Their caiquejees fight for fares by shouting and making violent motions to approaching travelers. When business is slow, twenty or more caiquejees may accost a customer at a time, often frightening away uninitiated travelers.

Boatwrights skillfully practice their craft in the small boatyards along the docks, manufacturing oars and caiques just as their fathers and forefathers taught them. Although their trade and techniques are ancient, and their tools primitive, their methods are perfectly adapted through the centuries for life in the Bosporus.