In the middle of the 5th century A.D. the Byzantine Emperor Theodosius II (r. 408-450) had started the construction of a promising, pioneering defensive project, the Theodosian Walls. These have length 5.5 kilometers, leaving a final barrier to insurgent appetites to seize the Byzantine capital. The new Walls were impregnable for nine centuries (until the middle of 16th century A.D.). In 29 May 1453, after nine weeks of fierce siege between besieged Byzantines and Ottoman besiegers, the Walls were not be able to resist the ultra-modern for the time being weapons. With the rise of the Ottoman Empire, they were second.

In 1985 they were included in the list of Unesco World Heritage Sites, without radically changing the fate of the structure. The visitor can see prefabricated houses emerging through the length of them, makeshift homes of the “Wall Growers”. In other words, it is a unique archaeological site, which has been converted to rural within a dense urban area. My mission is to capture the modern intervention, what is the human footprint on it. Their protection has left to its fate, as recently, in May 2020, we informed that one of the Byzantine towers collapsed. Political practices alone have led to this discrediting. Unfortunately, their renovation in the 1980’s provoked reactions from the public regarding their reliability of the program and the suitability of the materials that were used. As if all this were enough, the Turkish state has allowed the cultivation of the ditch and empty spaces. In conclusion, it should be underlined that in 2008 it was included in the list of 100 most endangered monuments in the world. But what is the current state of it, which its age is almost the same with the church of Hagia Sophia? Is it accessible?