Foreign envoys in Constantinople were met by roaring mechanical lions: the 'Throne of Solomon' in the Magnaura hall was said to be ringed by automaton trees with singing birds.
The envoy Liutprand, received in 949, left a dazzled account.
More amazing facts
- 922 The Arab envoy Ibn Fadlan described the Rus as 'tall as date palms'. On the Volga in 922 he admired their build, fair hair and ruddy skin — then called them the filthiest of God's creatures for not even washing their hands after eating.
- 935 · 1853 'Good King Wenceslas' of the English carol was never a king.
- 938 · 1288 The Vietnamese twice destroyed an enemy with the same trick on the same river.
- 964 · 965 The Andromeda Galaxy was first described in 964, a year before Sviatoslav crushed the Khazars.
- 970 The library of Caliph al-Hakam II in Córdoba held an estimated 400,000 to 500,000 volumes.
- 978 · 1016 Æthelred the Unready's nickname is a pun. His name meant 'noble counsel'; Old English unræd meant 'ill counsel'. Only later, as the word fell out of use, did 'unræd' turn into 'unready'.