Welcome to AirNenky's Cabinet of Curiosity's, a production of I Heart Radio and Grimm

and Mild.

Our world is full of the unexplainable.

And if history is an open book, all of these amazing tales are right there on display,

just waiting for us to explore.

Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosity's.

When Mehmed II, young Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, set his eyes on Constantinople in

1451, there was nothing anyone could do to talk him out of it.

And they tried.

Oh, they tried.

Because one does not simply conquer Constantinople.

When Mehmed wanted to do something truly great, something no Sultan had ever done before,

he wanted to take the capital city of Christianity, but he knew it wouldn't be easy, and he knew

that he would have to get creative in order to accomplish this goal.

Constantinople's defenses were quite literally impregnable thanks to modern technology.

There were four layers of walls, a moat, and a chain that stretched across the golden

horn to prevent any navy from getting close by the water.

Given that it was situated on a particularly small and easily defensible plot of land,

it's no wonder that the fortifications had held for centuries.

Mehmed wanted to fix that, or wreck that, I should say, but first he had to get past

the walls and the moat.

Despite how highly trained the Ottomans were, the Christians housed inside the city would

...