The fall of Constantinople on 29 May 1453
Ottoman forces under Sultan Mehmed II captured Constantinople on 29 May 1453 after a siege lasting from early April.
0:42 · Episode film
AI-generated historical dramatization.
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How Mehmed II captured Constantinople on 29 May 1453: the walls, Ottoman cannon, Golden Horn, Constantine XI, the final assault and the city’s aftermath.
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Constantinople, 29 May 1453. For weeks, Mehmed the Second's Ottoman army has bombarded the walls and pressed the city from land and sea. Exhausted defenders repair breaches through the night. Before dawn, repeated assaults overwhelm their thinning lines. Emperor Constantine the Eleventh dies in the final fighting, and Ottoman soldiers enter the capital. Killing, plunder and captivity follow. The imperial government of the eastern Romans has ended in Constantinople. Mehmed makes the conquered city a centre of Ottoman power, beginning another chapter in the life of the city on the Bosporus.
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