In the nar­ra­tive set in 1872, Arthur is in Con­stan­tino­ple, anx­ious­ly await­ing a fir­man that will grant him pas­sage to Nin­eveh. Days pass with lit­tle news, caus­ing a sense of ner­vous ten­sion that col­ors his every action. One evening, he’s sum­moned by clerks and a drago­man who insists he should seek diver­sion after being large­ly cooped up. Despite his ini­tial reluc­tance, he is swept into an unex­pect­ed night out­ing.

Soon, Arthur finds him­self in a lav­ish house with ornate decor and trays full of del­i­ca­cies. The drago­man reveals that it’s an estab­lish­ment meant to offer an authen­tic Ori­en­tal expe­ri­ence. How­ev­er, Arthur feels uncom­fort­able and trou­bled by past mem­o­ries asso­ci­at­ed with such places. Just as he con­tem­plates leav­ing, a woman enters, under­stood to be the madam of the house. Despite Arthur’s protests, the atmos­phere shifts dra­mat­i­cal­ly when music fills the room, played by three women, one of whom cap­ti­vates him with her beau­ty and a qanun, a tra­di­tion­al musi­cal instru­ment.

As the night unfolds, Arthur suc­cumbs to the charm of the music, momen­tar­i­ly escap­ing his wor­ries. The moment of calm is shat­tered by the alarm­ing sound of a crowd out­side — a fire has bro­ken out in the neigh­bor­hood. Pan­ic ensues as guests attempt to flee from the blaz­ing infer­no engulf­ing Pera, lead­ing to the destruc­tion of thou­sands of homes. Amid the chaos, Arthur rush­es back to retrieve the qanun, which sym­bol­izes a moment of beau­ty amidst tur­bu­lence.

After­wards, Arthur seeks refuge and assis­tance at the embassy, only to learn of dev­as­tat­ing news from the ambas­sador regard­ing his mother’s pass­ing. Unable to process the heavy loss and in despair, he ques­tions the cir­cum­stances sur­round­ing her death. Despite the ambassador’s offer to arrange his return to Eng­land, Arthur resolves to con­tin­ue his jour­ney to Nin­eveh, deter­mined to forge ahead despite the weight of per­son­al tragedy.

The imagery through­out cap­tures the vibran­cy and dan­ger of Con­stan­tino­ple, the trans­for­ma­tive pow­er of art and music, and the fleet­ing nature of life and home. The chap­ter ends with Arthur in deep intro­spec­tion about his life’s mean­ing and the loss he faces, sig­ni­fy­ing a turn­ing point in his jour­ney.

The chap­ter begins with Arthur arriv­ing at the British Embassy in Con­stan­tino­ple, locat­ed in the Pera dis­trict, designed to resem­ble Buck­ing­ham Palace. Exhaust­ed after his jour­ney, he eats rab­bit stew before set­tling into bed, lis­ten­ing to the sounds of the bustling city out­side. The fol­low­ing day, he meets the ambas­sador, a well-edu­cat­ed and aris­to­crat­ic man, in an opu­lent cham­ber filled with diverse art­work. Their con­ver­sa­tion is strained, with Arthur eager­ly ask­ing about his trav­el to Nin­eveh, only to learn that he must wait for a nec­es­sary fir­man, an offi­cial per­mit from the sul­tan, to begin exca­va­tions.

Arthur’s frus­tra­tion mounts as days turn into weeks with­out news of the fir­man. He attempts to nav­i­gate Ottoman bureau­cra­cy but strug­gles due to a lan­guage bar­ri­er and cul­tur­al mis­un­der­stand­ings. He feels like a fish out of water amid the embassy’s elite, reflect­ing on how dif­fer­ent the cus­toms and man­ners are com­pared to his own.

Dur­ing his time in Con­stan­tino­ple, Arthur has var­i­ous culi­nary expe­ri­ences, try­ing local dish­es that often upset his stom­ach, although he finds enjoy­ment in sweet desserts and cof­fee-house atmos­pheres. He delights in the city’s vibran­cy, often tak­ing strolls along the Bosporus, observ­ing the storks, dogs, and mul­ti­cul­tur­al crowds that pop­u­late the streets. He finds the absence of women strik­ing, wit­ness­ing glimpses of their lives with­in the con­fines of the harem.

While explor­ing the Grand Bazaar with a drago­man, Arthur immers­es him­self in the local cul­ture, fas­ci­nat­ed by the spe­cial­ized quar­ters with­in the mar­ket. He hap­pens upon a com­mo­tion involv­ing a Yazi­di man accused of dev­il-wor­ship. In a moment of com­pas­sion, he eras­es the chalk cir­cle drawn around the old man, earn­ing grate­ful words from him that res­onate with Arthur’s own quests and exis­ten­tial reflec­tions. As he leaves the bazaar with a piece of lapis lazuli, he pon­ders the man’s cryp­tic mes­sage about a riv­er flow­ing through him, con­tem­plat­ing his own rest­less heart and its con­nec­tion to the ancient epic tales that inspire his jour­ney .

In March 1872, King Arthur of the Sew­ers and Slums embarks on a jour­ney across the Eng­lish Chan­nel, feel­ing com­pelled by a sense of duty and fear that pub­lic inter­est in Mesopotamia may wane. As his ship nav­i­gates the dark waters, Arthur con­tem­plates his moti­va­tions for uncov­er­ing ancient tablets while grap­pling with mem­o­ries of his mother’s ill­ness. Leav­ing Lon­don to seek adven­ture evokes a sense of remorse, as he feels he may be aban­don­ing her. When a fierce hail­storm strikes, Arthur wor­ries about his fate at sea, shar­ing a moment with a chat­ty mer­chant who encour­ages him to embrace the jour­ney.

Upon arriv­ing in Paris, Arthur is cap­ti­vat­ed by the vibrant city, with its bloom­ing flo­ra and rich his­to­ry that he has only encoun­tered through lit­er­a­ture. Wan­der­ing the ele­gant streets, he rev­els in a sense of free­dom, con­trast­ing his pre­vi­ous life in Lon­don. How­ev­er, he soon con­fronts the stark real­i­ty of pover­ty in the city’s under­bel­ly, notic­ing the dis­mal con­di­tions of the poor­er neigh­bor­hoods. This dichoto­my presents a real­i­ty where wealth allows for leisure­ly liv­ing, while the impov­er­ished strug­gle against the relent­less grind of time.

Arthur’s explo­ration leads him to the Lou­vre, where he immers­es him­self in Mesopotami­an arti­facts, feel­ing a deep con­nec­tion to his­tor­i­cal relics. After a brief stay, he boards a steam­er for the Mediter­ranean, where he encoun­ters a diverse group of pas­sen­gers, includ­ing a plant hunter head­ed to Bhutan. Despite bat­tling sea­sick­ness, Arthur finds won­der in the vast ocean and the places he pass­es, fuel­ing his desire to uncov­er the miss­ing lines of the Epic of Gil­gamesh.

Filled with doubt, Arthur grap­ples with feel­ings of inad­e­qua­cy as he pre­pares for his jour­ney to Nin­eveh. How­ev­er, as days at sea trans­form into exhil­a­rat­ing antic­i­pa­tion for the adven­tures ahead, he embraces the thrill of pur­su­ing his long-held aspi­ra­tions, sym­bol­ized by the three mag­i­cal syl­la­bles: Ni-ne-veh. Upon near­ing Con­stan­tino­ple, Arthur is immersed in the stun­ning scenery, but is met with skep­ti­cism from the cap­tain, who warns him of the city’s seduc­tive nature. As he arrives and search­es for the British Embassy, Arthur feels unease at being alone in a bustling, for­eign land, ulti­mate­ly reflect­ing on how past mem­o­ries inter­twine with the fresh expe­ri­ences await­ing him .

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