Nedim Gürsel: The Conqueror

In the place where the current Istanbul is, there was a very beautiful and also very tyrannical Queen called Kaydafa. She had established the capital city between Uskiidar and Saraybumu and called it Makdon. At that time the Black Sea and the Mediterranean had not yet merged, and thus there was no Bosphorus either. Having settled his authority on the world, Alexander the Great wanted to conquer Kaydafa's county. Until that day Alexander the Great had fought kings and their strong armies, but he had never raised his hand against a woman. Sending his messenger to Kaydafa, he asked her as a woman to surrender and not to resist against the world's emperor.

When Kaydafa did not accept Alexander the Great's offer, he surrounded Makdon, but he failed to capture the city because the city was being defended by a dreadful sea monster with seven heads, wings, and a forked tongue; fire belched out from its mouth, and its red eyes flamed brightly, casting the whole area into a glowing red light. The army of Alexander the Great, under the command of the bravest and smartest commanders, could not cope with this sea monster, with whom Queen Kaydafa was in love. The monster, which was given a virgin as a sacrifice each day by the people of Makdon, was not giving quarter to them, burning the soldiers with its flames, and making the spears and arrows coming towards him look like a rain of toothpicks for him to clean his teeth-each of which was as big as a minaret. As long as the Monster ate a virgin every day, it didn't care about anybody except Kaydafa, and Alexander the Great realized that there was no way to capture the city unless he kidnapped all the virgins. He successfully entered the city one night with his most reliable men. But as he set about seducing the virgins of Makdon with the help of his golden blond, curly hair, beautiful face, and powerful muscles, he was apprehended. They brought Alexander into Kaydafa's presence.

The Queen could not choose to kill this young, smart, handsome, and powerful man. She ordered the guards to put him in jail. This is Alexander! Could he stay in jail? Naturally, he found a way and freed himself and returned to his home. Although his generals told him that he should give up trying to conquer Makdon, he did not listen to them. This time he tried another way. He consulted and ordered all the engineers and architects of the Empire to measure the height of the Black Sea shore. After searching and calculating, taking days and days, they reached the conclusion that the Black Sea is higher than the Mediterranean, and its waters flowed more abundantly than the Mediterranean. Consequently, he had a waterway excavated to the north of Makdon, using a thousand workers.

The waters of the Black Sea, finding their way through this canal, flowed to south, towards the Mediterranean. The people of Makdon were drowned and perished. It is said that the only person whose life was saved, with the help of the Dragon, was Kaydafa, and it took her to its cave in the depths of the sea and jailed her there.

Thus, Alexander the Great started to build a new city-the current Istanbul-on the shore of the waterway he had excavated, at the meeting point of the Black Sea and Mediterranean. But the seven-headed Dragon was not giving them a chance to go forward; it would come out from the sea each night and destroy the foundations and walls built during the daytime. His generals tried to persuade Alexander to abandon this undertaking. But he never gave up. Now he asked the carpenters to make a waterproof casket and to put portholes with thick glass at both sides of it. The carpenters worked months and months, putting forth great efforts. Alexander then took two drawing masters with him, after having the box put on a ship, and sailed to the open sea. In the open sea, having entered the box, he ordered the sailors to drop it into the deep. The sailors obeyed his order. So Alexander and the drawing masters went down to the depths of the Mediterranean. As they watched the creatures passing in front of them on the floor of the sea, the Dragon appeared. It came flapping its dorsal fins, like a fish trying to take a breath, opening and closing its mouth, each breath like a volcano bubbling noisily between its big teeth. It passed right next to the box without seeing them. The drawing masters drew a detailed picture.

After coming out from the deep of the sea and returning to the city, Alexander ordered the bronze-casting master to make a statue after consulting these pictures. The masters worked for months, days and nights, and made two statues of the Dragon in its actual size. Alexander  had magnificent marble columns constructed on the seashore, and he had the statues put on these. When the Dragon came out from the sea and saw the statues, it was afraid of them; it retreated back to the sea and never appeared again. Consequently, the city of Constantinople was established on the peerless peninsula on which the current Sarayburnu lies on the shore near where Makdon remains under the water.

From that day until today, it is said that the Dragon still looks for a chance to come and destroy the city, and that if the columns are destroyed, it will come and swallow the city. I have no idea what you think, but I believe in the story about this city with seven hills that was destroyed and rebuilt seven times and would burn with the flame of the Sea Dragon. As it is told in historical documents, myths, and the holy books foretelling the resurrection day, it is also decreed that our city would one day be destroyed. And, moreover, a city bom from the water must naturally find its end in a fire. It is a known fact, but let us remind ourselves: water drowns a man, but the fire consumes him. And while one lives in Istanbul, that person realizes all too well that every passing day is a sorrow. 

Translated from Turkish by Yavuz Demir and John Ottendorff