Constantinople: Eye of the World is a meditation in photographs on the greatest city of the ancient and medieval worlds. In the 11th century, when the population of Rome was 30,000, Constantinople and its suburbs were home to perhaps a million people. It was the only major city of the ancient world to survive intact to the end of the Middle Ages, preserving the intellectual heritage of Greece and Rome. Napoleon Bonaparte once said that if the world had a capital, it would be Constantinople. The City’s founder, St. Constantine the Great, would surely have agreed. Its medieval Greek inhabitants called their City «ho ophthalmos tou kosmou » — the Eye of the World.

Michael Gfoeller has been traveling the world continuously since 1979, in search of the marvels of world history and culture. His travels have often taken him to Constantinople. The City long ago captured his heart and imagination, and his aspiration is to return to it again.