Earthquake Strikes Constantinople

1091

A powerful earthquake shook Constantinople, damaging churches, city walls, and the great aqueduct that supplied the capital's water. The tremor came at the worst possible moment: Emperor Alexios Komnenos was already struggling to rebuild Byzantine power after decades of military defeats and territorial loss. Nature, it seemed, was as hostile as the Normans and Turks. Repair crews worked through the winter, but the cracks in the walls mirrored deeper fractures in the empire's confidence.