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At the siege of Constantinople in 1453, the Ottomans employed several cannons, anywhere from 12 to 62. They were built at foundries that employed Turkish cannon founders and technicians, most notably Saruca, in addition to at least one foreign cannon founder, Orban. Most cannons at the siege were built by Ottoman engineers, including a large ...
The fall of Constantinople, also known as the conquest of Constantinople, was the capture of the capital of the Byzantine Empire by the Ottoman Empire.The city was captured on 29 May 1453 as part of the culmination of a 55-day siege which had begun on 6 April.
The Dardanelles Gun is a similar super-sized cannon that was built in 1464 by the Turkish military engineer Munir Ali and modelled after the cannon built by Orban.. The Basilic, [1] or The Ottoman Cannon was a very large-calibre cannon designed by Orban, a cannon engineer, Saruca Usta and architect Muslihiddin Usta at a time when cannons were still new.
The artillery hit a British ship with two 700 lb (320 kg) cannonballs, killing 60 sailors; in total, the cannons claimed over 100 lives, prompting the British to retreat. In 1867, Sultan Abdul Aziz gave Queen Victoria the 17-ton "Dardanelles Gun," one of the cannon used at the siege of Constantinople. [121]
Larger cannon were used in greater numbers during the Fall of Constantinople: Sultan Mehmet II used 68 Hungarian-made cannons, the largest of which was 26 feet long and weighed 20 tons; this fired a 1,200 pound stone cannonball, and required an operating crew of 200 men, [8] as well as 70 oxen and 10,000 men just to transport them. [7]
Orban managed to build the giant gun within three months at Adrianople, whence sixty oxen dragged it to Constantinople. Orban also produced other, smaller cannons used by the Turkish siege forces. [11] Bombarding technology similar to Orban's had first been developed for the Hungarian Army. It rose in popularity during the early 1400s all over ...
In contrast, when Sultan Mehmet II laid siege to Constantinople in April 1453, he used 68 Hungarian-made cannon, the largest of which was 26 feet (7.9 m) long and weighed 20 tons. This fired a 1,200 pound stone cannonball, and required an operating crew of 200 men. [ 46 ]
Weapons amongst the Byzantine army varied greatly, as did the composition of the army. Shields and spears were as always the most common weapon. The crossbow was adopted by the Byzantine infantry in the 13th century, [ 18 ] although the Cypriote rebel Isaac Komnenos is recorded to have used crossbowmen as early as 1191.