Adnan Rashid – Roman Fortress of Nicaea.

			AsSalamu Alaikum everyone, this is Nicaea, the famous Nicaea, where the Council of Nicaea took place
in the year 325. See, I'm standing right now, next to a gate, built during the Roman period, you can
see the gate behind me, this is where we came from. If you look behind me, there, okay, actually in
front of me. And now behind me, this is a Roman gate. And this is the city of Iznik. In Turkey.
Today, the city is called Iznik. But the classical name of the city, the ancient name is Nicaea. And
this city was named after one of the generals, the sister of sorry, the wives of one of the generals
of Alexander the Great. His name was Leslie Marquez, when his wife died, her name was Nicaea. So he
		

			named the city after her since then, since the fourth century BC, the city has been around. It could
be older. No, no doubt for this structure is from the Roman period, you can see Greek return on
		

			on top there, you can see play the Greek alphabets, there is something in Greek here. Okay.
		

			It's all in capitals. Of course, the classical Greek was all in capitals. Right? So that's the
classical Greek day from the Roman period, the structure is still very much stunning. As you can
see.
		

			It looks very scary. It looks like it's gonna collapse. But it has been around it has
		

			survived so many earthquakes that took place in this region. It still stands to this day, nearly
2000 years later. So just wanted to quickly share some information on the city of Nicaea. And the
walls around it. Actually, if you come follow me very quickly, and I want to show
		

			everyone, this is how the Romans they made the roads. Okay. This is from the Roman period. You can
see how neat this looks. I mean, we make roads today and they don't last, the breakup. Okay, coming
from London. Now, you know, what the state of the roads is?
		

			I don't want to make it a political rant. But
		

			you can see
		

			you can see the walls outside.
		

			Okay, this is enrollment period, you see these these massive blocks, okay, many of them are made of
marble. They were carved, they were specifically brought here. By 1000s of slaves, bulls and carts
would carry them.
		

			And these constructions, this giant massive constructions took place. And if you come behind me very
quickly,
		

			I want everyone to see how far how long this particular wall is built during the Roman period, this
city was impregnable. The Ottomans spent years trying to conquer Nicaea because this was a very
important city in the ancient world. For Christians, it was very important, religiously speaking,
because this is where the Council of Nicaea took place. I made a blog earlier. At that very spot
where the council took place. You can see the walls behind me. I'm sure the camera is showing you
the long wall behind me.
		

			Look how gigantic how magnificent
		

			how powerful
		

			the structure is. So it was in the 1331 when the city fell into Muslim hands of course Seljuks had
taken it before and then the the Crusaders took it from the Muslims and the Byzantines took it. And
then the Ottomans took care in 1331 Sultan or Han, the son of Sultan of man or the logic of man, his
son took it from the the Romans or the Byzantines as they are known. Okay, and this was an
impregnable city. It was a very difficult city to take the seizures very long, but eventually it
fell into the Ottoman hands and it survived to this day. Amazing structure. Thank you for listening