Sultan Mehmed II ordered the fortress built on the Bosphorus, and work began on April 15, 1452. The article names no architect and gives no completion date. Three main towers stand along the walls. The Sarıca Pasha Tower is cylindrical, 92 feet (28 m) high with walls 23 feet (7 m) thick, and the Halil Pasha Tower is a dodecagonal prism 72 feet (22 m) high that held the large cannons. The Zağanos Pasha Tower is 69 feet (21 m) high. There are also a small tower and thirteen watchtowers.
The curtain walls run 820 feet (250 m) north to south and enclose 336,000 square feet (31,250 m²). The towers had wooden floors and conical wooden roofs covered in lead, which no longer survive. The article does not state the wall material.
A 1509 earthquake and a 1746 fire damaged it. Restoration ran from 1955 to 1958, and it has been a museum since 1960.
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