Rather boring and clumsy host. Uses 3D scanning to reveal things about structures that are already known so turns it into a travel/history show with a gimmick. However, some interesting historical information given about Constantinople/Istanbul. Of particular interest (to me) was the chain used to blockade the ships of the invading Ottoman army of 21-year-old Sultan Mehmed II. He used, according to the show, logs greased in olive oil to move his ships across land. The Sultan gave his army 3 days to ransack the city because it was the “custom: at the time and later he supposedly cried about it.

Most of the Greek women were raped and enslaved. According to the Venetian surgeon Nicolò Barbaro, “all through the day the Turks made a great slaughter of Christians through the city”. According to Philip Mansel, widespread persecution of the city’s civilian inhabitants took place, resulting in thousands of murders and rapes and 30,000 civilians being enslaved or forcibly deported.

The looting was extremely thorough in certain parts of the city. Four days later on 2 June, the Sultan would find the city largely deserted and half in ruins; churches had been desecrated and stripped, houses were no longer habitable and stores and shops were emptied. He is famously reported to have been moved to tears by this, speaking “What a city we have given over to plunder and destruction.”

Most of the show revolves around the magnificent Hagia Sophia which was a Greek Orthodox Christian cathedral before being modified and having minarets added. The show does a good job exploring this building so it is worth the watch for this alone but the 3D scanning lends little to it other than to acknowledge some wear and tear throughout the centuries.