famous for a council in 1514, which caused John
Huss and Jerome of Prague to be burnt: and
likewise condemned the doctrine of Wickliffe,
ordered his bones to be burnt forty years after he
was dead. It was formerly the capital of a secu-
larized bishopric, extending on both sides of the
Rhine ; that on the south is now included in the
Swiss Canton of Thurgau ; and that on the north,
with the city itself, now forms part of the circle
of the lake in the territory of the Grand Duke of
of Baden, 100 miles S. S. E. of Carlsrube, 80 E.
of Basle, and 42 N. N. E. of Zurich.

Constance, Lake of, the most considerable
lake of Switzerland, which it separates from
Suabia, that part excepted where the city of Con-
stance is seated on its south side. It is divided
into three parts. The upper and largest part is
called Boden See; the middle part is named
Bodmer See ; and the lower part Unter See, Zeller
See, or the lake of Zell. The upper lake, from Bre-
gentz, at its eastern extremity to Constance, is 37
m. long, and 15 in its greatest breadth. Through
this lake the Rhine flows, and enters the Zeller See,
which is 16 m. long and 10 in its greatest breadth.
It is in some places 350 fathoms deep, and 100
generally; and like all the lakes in Switzerland is
deeper in summer than in winter ; which is owing
to the first melting of the snow from the adjacent
mountains. It abounds with fish, and its trout are
much esteemed; and besides the city of Constance,
has many agreeable towns and villages on its banks.

Constant in. ph. Oswego Co. N. Y. on Oneida
Lake. Pop. 1,193.

Constantina, a town of Spain in Andalusia,
with a castle on a mountain,40 m. N. E. of Seville.

Constantina, the eastern province of the king-
dom ot Algiers, and the largest and richest of
the four. The greatest part along the coast is
mountainous. In the mountains dwell free Ara-
bian and Moorish tribes, of whom the Cabyles are
deemed the most turbulent and cruel. As these
free mountaineers possessed a superfluity of oil,
soap, dried figs, and timber, the government of
Algiers, which stood in need of these articles
were formerly obliged in many things to show in-
dulgence to these tribes. See Zaab.

Constantina, a city of the kingdom Algiers,
capital of the province of the same name. It is
seated at the top of a steep rock, and there is no
way to it bnt by steps cut out of the rock.
The usual way of punishing criminals here is to
throw them down the cliff. Here are many Ro-
man antiquities, particularly a triumphal arch.
Next to Algiers, this city is the most populous in
the kin<rdom. It is 190 miles E. by S. of Algiers.
Long. 6/24. E., lat. 36. 24. N.

Constantinople, one of the largest cities in Eu-
rope, and the capital of the Turkish Empire. It
is of a triangular form ; and seated between the
Black Sea and the Sea of Marmora, on a neck of
land that advances toward Natolia from which it
is separated by a strait a mile in breadth. The
Sea of Marmora washes its walls on the south,
and a gu'f of the strait of Constantinople does
the same on the N. E. It was anciently called
Byzantium, but the name was changed in the
year 330 by Constantine the Great, who made it
the seat of the Roman empire in the east. It was
taken in 1453 by the Turks, who have kept pos-
session of it ever since. The grand signior’s
palace, called the seraglio, is on the sea side, sur-
rounded by walls flanked with towers, and sepa-
rated from the city by canals. It stands on the
site of ancient Byzantium, the east point of the
present city, and is three miles in circumference,
consisting of an assemblage of palaces and apart-
ments placed by the side of one another, without
symmetry and without order. The principal en-
trance of this palace is of marble, and is called
Capi, that is the Porte (or gate), a name used
frequently to express the court, or the empire.
The castle of Seven Towers is a state prison,
and stands near the Sea of Marmora, at the
west point of the city from the seraglio ; and at
the north-west point, without the walls, is the
imperial palace of Aijub, or Atmejdan, the (an-
cient Hippodrome) with a village of the same
name. The number of houses in Constantinople
is prodigious ; but in general, they are mean, and
all of them constructed of wood, and the roofs
covered with hollow tiles. The public edifices
alone are built by masonry in a very solid manner.
The streets are narrow, badly paved, and dirty ;
and the people are infested with the plague al-
xc2xbbmost every year. The inhabitants, who are va-
riously said to amount tc from 3 to 400,000, are half
Turks, two thirds of the other half, Greeks or
Armenians, and the rest Jews. Here are a great
number of ancient monuments still remaining;
particularly the superb temple of St. Sophia built
in the sixth century, which is converted into a
mosque, and will contain 100,000 persons conven-
iently. Between the two mosques of sultan Sol-
yman and Bajazet is the old seraglio, in which are
shut up the wives of the deceased sultans, and
also such womenxe2x80x98as have displeased the grand
seignior. The bazaars, or bezesteins, are large
square buildings, covered with d >mes supported
by arcades, and contain all *uihs of goods,
which are there exposed to sale. There is a
market for slaves, the Jew's are the principal mer-
chants. who bring them here to be sold ; great
numbers of girls are brought from Hungary .Greece,
Candia, Circassia. Mingrelia. and Georgia, for
the service of the Turks, who genera!I v buy them
for their seraglios. The great square near the
mosque of sultan Bajazet, is the place for public
diversions. The gulf on the north-east of the
city is the harbour, which runs up from the point
of the seraglio to the village of Aijub, about
four miles in length and half a mile wide where
broadest. Aijub may be reckoned one of the
suburbs, and has a mosque, in which is the tomb
of sultan Othman, the founder of the empire.
The suburbs of Galata and Pera., are on the other
side of the harbour. The former extends along
the entrance of the harbour, and is chiefly occu-
pied by merchants ; and adjoining it on the east,
is a cannon foundery, called Tophana. Pera
stands behind these on an eminence, and is the
place where the foreign ambassadors reside. In
this part there are several houses where Euro-
pean sailors, Greeks, and even Turks, go to drink
and intoxicate themselves, notwithstanding the
severity of the government in this respect. The
circumference of this city is 14 miles, and 24 with
the suburbs included; and as they are built on
ground which rises gradually, there is a view of
the whole town from the sea. The city is sur-
rounded by winlls of freestone, here and there
mixed with bricks, and flanked with 250 towrers.
There are 22 gates; six on the land side, and the
rest towards the harbour and sea. The palaces,
mosques, bagnios, and caravanserais, are manv of
them magnificent. Constantinople is 780 miles
in a meridional line S. E. of Vienna Loner. 28.
35. E., lat. 41. 1. N.

Constantinople, Strait of, anciently the Thracian