From the "bet you didn't know this awesome tech existed so long ago files."
Ottoman Super Cannon: The bombard that built an empire
Guarding over the Dardanelles for about 400 years, the famed Ottoman super cannon is arguably one of the most important guns in history.
Like Darth Vader's Death Star, the Dardanelles gun imposed the overbearing, threatening presence that tacitly boasted of imperial grandeur of which pop-culture villains could only dream. This pass was assuredly Ottoman. Its predecessor would break down the walls to an empire that had continued since Augustus Caesar and it itself would deter another up-and-coming empire almost half a millennium later.
The generic term Ottoman super cannon, when used by historians, confusingly refers to a few separate bombards that were used by the Ottoman Empire but dating from the same period. The first one was nicknamed Basilica and the last one the fodder of pub trivia is the Dardanelles Gun, or ahi topu.
The Dardanelles gun is a super cannon designed as a bombard for use in siege warfare. The gun weighs 16.8 tons and measures 17 feet in length with a diameter of just under 3.5 feet and it fired a massive marble shot at a range of one-and-a-half miles.
More good stuff in the story. Follow the link.
Ottoman Super Cannon: The bombard that built an empire
Guarding over the Dardanelles for about 400 years, the famed Ottoman super cannon is arguably one of the most important guns in history.
Like Darth Vader's Death Star, the Dardanelles gun imposed the overbearing, threatening presence that tacitly boasted of imperial grandeur of which pop-culture villains could only dream. This pass was assuredly Ottoman. Its predecessor would break down the walls to an empire that had continued since Augustus Caesar and it itself would deter another up-and-coming empire almost half a millennium later.
The generic term Ottoman super cannon, when used by historians, confusingly refers to a few separate bombards that were used by the Ottoman Empire but dating from the same period. The first one was nicknamed Basilica and the last one the fodder of pub trivia is the Dardanelles Gun, or ahi topu.
The Dardanelles gun is a super cannon designed as a bombard for use in siege warfare. The gun weighs 16.8 tons and measures 17 feet in length with a diameter of just under 3.5 feet and it fired a massive marble shot at a range of one-and-a-half miles.
More good stuff in the story. Follow the link.