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'Walls of Constaninople in the Sixteenth Century', (1890). Known as Istanbul today, Constantinople was capital of the Byzantine Empire, until Muslim conquest in 1453 when it became capital of the Ottoman Empire, the population grew to 700,000 in the 16th century. From "Cassell's Illustrated Universal History, Vol. III - The Middle Ages", by Edmund Ollier. [Cassell and Company, Limited, London, Paris and Melbourne, 1890. ] (KEYSTONE/HERITAGE IMAGES/The Print Collector)