How to read this monument?
The approximately five-kilometer-long Iznik walls surround the city with a line close to a pentagon. Although the first traces of defense date back to the Bithynia period, the system seen today was shaped by Roman and especially Byzantine additions. Thanks to 114 bastions, four main gates and different knitting techniques, the walls are not the work of a single period, but a long history of restoration.
Don't miss
Compare different repair phases where courses of ashlar, rubble and brick vary.
Read the relationship of the four main gates to the two main axes of the city on the map.
See round and square shaped examples of zodiac signs side by side.
Look for reused blocks from the theater and old buildings on the walls.
historical background
The Iznik Walls are a huge defense line that began to be built in the 4th century BC and was expanded during the Byzantine period with the Roman Emperors Claudius and Gallienus.
With its five-kilometer length, 114 towers, outer walls and inner wall layers, it successfully protected the city against all sieges in history.
It is an open-air castle museum with magnificent entrances such as Istanbul Gate, Lefke Gate, Yenişehir Gate and Lake Gate.
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