While London was a swamp, and Paris, a fishing village, Istanbul reigned for a thousand years as the world's richest city. At the crossroads of Europe and Asia, it amassed more gold than both continents combined, and safeguarded Christendom's most sacred relics, including the True Cross and the heads of the Apostles. The largest city walls ever created protected Istanbul's treasures from endless waves of invaders.

In the words of spy masters and spies, invaders and their victims, Intrigue in Istanbul explores how history's most diabolical minds plotted to seize Istanbul, and with it, rule the world. Through glittering palaces and soaring mosques, Intrigue goes in hot pursuit of Gestapo killers, berserk Crusaders, scheming harem slaves, and KGB moles, visiting monuments that sparked their megalomania, and sampling the riches that drove them to murder. Teeming waterways and cobbled avenues take viewers on a chilling journey through time, to rediscover one of the world's most alluring cities, and peer deep into the heart of conspiracy, in Intrigue in Istanbul.

Part One - The Bomb
Our tale of intrigue begins in a world convulsed by modern war-at the last stop on the legendary Orient Express. Two unidentified pieces of luggage mysteriously join those of British Ambassador Thomas Randall, in Istanbul's moody Sirkeci Train Station. The year is 1941, and Europe in the grip of Germany's brutal Weremacht. Turkey's bold neutrality has turned Istanbul into a battleground for Allied and Axis spies. As the gateway to the Middle East's oil fields, Turkey could change the course of the war. Noted spy historian Barry Rubin tells how Germany plans to gain Turkey's allegiance, with murder: "Ambassador Randall came to Istanbul to fix eroding relations between Turkey and England. England would declare war if anything happened to Randall there. Of course the German Gestapo planted the bags, probably on the Orient Express itself."

Next stop for the unwitting ambassador is the Pera Palas, a luxury hotel steeped in spy lore. In the 1920's the infamous Mata Hari stayed here. Agatha Christi wrote Murder On the Orient Express in Room 411. Ian Fleming would be a later guest. A porter deposits the diplomat's bags in the lobby, as Randall heads for the hotel's Orient Bar-the romantic inspiration for 'Rick's Place' ofCasablanca fame. Randall hopes a whisky will soothe his jangled nerves. Instead, it saves his life. With actual newspaper headlines, photographs, and eyewitness accounts, Intrigue in Istanbul explores the aftermath of the ensuing explosion- six dead, the hotel in shambles, Istanbul on red alert. Turkey's neutrality remains intact. But as Barry Rubin notes, cloak and dagger in Istanbul didn't end with the bomb: "On the contrary, it went underground. Turkish police rounded up the usual suspects - known Nazi agents, including Paula Koch, who was called the Mata Hari of World War II. Another spy, Kemal the Englishman, was rumored to be next door when the bomb went off. Henceforth, spies were more discreet."

Intrigue leaves World War II Istanbul with a visit to the Cistern of a Thousand and One Columns. The vault was the rumored scene of clandestine spy meetings, and later filmed for the James Bond thriller, From Russia with Love. The Cold War will bring a new breed of spy to lurk among its ghostly columns, but they are merely the latest newcomers to an ancient Istanbul brotherhood. For the roots of intrigue in Istanbul lie deep ... in the past.

Part Two - The Blind Man
"I can assure you that those who had never seen Constantinople before never imagined there could be so fine a place in all the world. They noted the high walls and lofty towers encircling it, its rich palaces and tall churches. There was indeed no man so brave and daring that his flesh did not shudder at the sight!" -Villehardouin, Knight of the Fourth Crusade

One man did not shudder - Venice's blind old ruler, Enrico Dandolo. Lured by its riches, and personal revenge, Dandolo unleashed the might of Christendom - an entire Crusade - upon Constantinople. Intrigue in Istanbul journeys to 1203 to explore the plot that diverted 10,000 soldiers bound for Egypt to the capital of the Christian world. On the trail of the Crusaders, Intrigue goes from their camp at Istanbul's Galatasaray district, to the ghostly ruins of Blachernea Palace, where the soldiers of the Cross penetrated city walls that had withstood attack for 1,000 years. On the still-daunting battlements, and through eyewitness accounts, Intrigue explores the Crusaders' strategy: a joint land-sea attack accompanied by catapults that could hurl a burning caldron of oil 100 yards. Footage of real siege-machines in action gives fiery immediacy to the tactics that brought The Bastion of the West to its knees.

At the height of the siege, Intrigue uncovers the shocking personal vendetta behind the onslaught. Byzantine scholar John Norwich describes how the 90-year old Doge Dandolo hijacked the Pope's army by binding them in debt. Then he used the Crusaders to settle an old score: "The beauty of Constantinople was literally the last thing Dandolo ever saw. He was blinded there twenty years before by the Emperor's henchmen, who held a magnifying glass over his eyes. The Venetian ruler had another reason for diverting the Crusade from Egypt - Venice had a secret trade agreement with its Sultan." Then, of course, there was the loot. Glowing mosaics in Istanbul's Church of the Savior - one of the few holy places spared - give a hint of the beauty destroyed by the invaders in an orgy of murder and pillaging that evoked Armageddon.

The darkening of the sun, the turning of the moon into blood, did they not foretell the last evils? There were lamentations, wailing at the crossroads, moaning at the temples, the taking of captives, and raping of bodies heretofore sound and whole. - Nicetas, Byzantine survivor
Footage reveals some of the treasures Dandolo sent home to Venice - the priceless Four Horses that once decorated Constantinople's Hippodrome, and the gold altar now enshrined in St. Mark's Cathedral.

Lost for all time are Constantinople's most sacred treasures, Biblical relics that included the True Cross, and the heads of Christ's apostles. At Topkapi Palace, Intrigue tracks down the only remains from the macabre booty-St. John the Baptist's hand, and a piece of his skull.

Intrigue leaves the Crusaders at what was once Christendom's greatest church -the Haghia Sophia. Built by Emperor Justinian in 532, this miracle of sacred architecture suffered a scene worthy of Dante-drunken Christians chopping up the gold alter, and filling bags with chalices, icons, and relics of the saints. Meanwhile, a prostitute, seated on the Patriarch's Throne, sings bawdy songs. In perhaps the Crusade's greatest irony, the Doge of Venice lies entombed in the great church his army desecrated. In the Haghia Sophia's second floor gallery, a slab of marble bears the inscription 'Enrico Dandolo.'

Part Three - The Siren
Is the desire to kill someone, as dear to you as Mustafa? You killed him, deluded by a lying trick And where is the truth in that? -Ottoman poet. On an evening in January, 1603, muted screams break the calm of the Bosphorus. Where the waterway passes magnificent Topkapi Palace, ten women bound in sacks are thrown into the channel to drown. Inside the palace, 19 princes are strangled with bowstring. The occasion? A new Sultan has ascended the throne.

Intrigue visits the capital of the Ottoman monarchy on a day that comes to symbolize the empire's decline. In just a half century, a string of debauched Sultans had turned a kingdom of unrivaled power and artistic achievement into 'the sick man of Europe.' Intrigue probes the mystery of the Ottomans' downfall, and finds conspiracy, and a slave girl, at its core. Her name is Roxelana, a mysterious Russia beauty captured in war during the reign of Suleyman the Magnificent. From servitude she scaled the heights of power, ultimately commanding an entourage of 200 personal servants and eunuch guards. To understand how she seduced the Ottoman's greatest ruler, and seized the reigns of the empire, Intrigue penetrates one of the most provocative institutions ever devised: the Sultan's harem. In Topkapi's 400-room pleasure palace, the kingdom's most beautiful slaves and kidnapped Europeans were trained in music, dance, and the erotic arts. Colorful ritual accompanied the selection of the Sultans' sexual partners, while scribes kept records of his every carnal encounter. Harem wives competed to bear the sultan's sons, only to see them die when each monarch slew his rivals, in an ancient tradition of brotherly murder.

Single-handedly Roxelana transformed the gilded cage into the nucleus of the empire. Intrigue reveals how the Russian siren bred a network of spies, then used them to eliminate her rivals - Ibrahim, the empire's most distinguished statesman, Mustafa, the beloved heir apparent, and even Bayezid, Roxelana's most gifted son. In their place she enthroned the drunken Selim the Sot, first of the weak-minded Sultans who brought the Empire down. Beyond the harem's honeyed walls, Intrigue explores the Suleymaniye Mosque, a towering monument to Roxelana's persuasive powers. When ministers urged the Sultan to move the meddlesome harem away from Topkapi, Roxelana countered with the great Suleymaniye, built in her Sultan's name.

Part Four - The Mole
By August 1945, Nazi Germany has fallen, and the war in Europe is over. Spirits are high in Istanbul's colorful Galatasaray district, as one of the most dramatic espionage stories in Cold War history gets underway. Konstantine Volkov - a Soviet diplomat and KGB agent - appears at the English consulate and announces his intention to defect. In exchange for sanctuary, he offers a shattering secret - three Soviet agents have penetrated London's highest government offices. Two are in the Foreign Office. One heads an organization devoted to counter-espionage.

To investigate the charges, London sends a rakish young officer, given to cravats and smoking jackets, who checks into the Pera Palas Hotel. He then wheedles an invitation for the weekend aboard the great yacht, 'Makouk' as the British Ambassador's guest. The yacht sets sail from the Kabatash landing stage-today teeming with commuters en route to Istanbul's Asian shore and the Sea of Marmara. Here, Intrigue reveals the incredible identity of the charming bon vivant - Kim Philby, the most successful double agent of the Cold War. In 30 years as a Soviet mole, Philby would send dozens of Western agents to their deaths, compromise NATO security, and hinder investigations of his fellow Cambridge moles - Guy Burgess and Donald McLean.

In his own words, Philby describes the shock of learning about Volkov's allegations in London: "I stared at the papers rather longer than necessary in order to compose my thoughts...I very much wanted to be alone...The only course was to put a bold face on it-I told the Chief we were onto something of the greatest importance." In Istanbul, Philby's confrontation with Volkov, scheduled for Monday, could lead to a firing squad...but not for Philby. When British diplomats try to contact Volkov, his secretary chills them with the words, "Volkov is in Moscow." The Soviet consulate claims never to have heard of him. Philby returns to London, apparently foiled.

The Volkov mystery remains unsolved until September, when a Soviet war plane makes an unscheduled landing at Istanbul Airport. A car races to the aircraft, and a heavily bandaged man on a stretcher is loaded onboard. Intrigue reveals that for years to come a film of this event would be played in Moscow to discourage would-be defectors. Few doubt the 'patient' was Volkov, destined for torture and execution in the USSR.

For nearly 20 more years, Philby would pursue his craft, betraying Western agents and infiltrating Washington. He would end his career in Moscow as a colonel in the KGB. But after the near-miss in Istanbul, Philby confided to an American journalist, he never felt safe again.