I recently went on a city trip to Istanbul and while reading up about the history of the city, I noticed several similarities to Kings's Landing that were lost on me previously: The great chain across the Golden Horn inlet. A huge chain pulled across the inlet, albeit to prevent ships from entering, not to trap them. The use of Greek Fire, the secret recipe for this primitive form of napalm supposedly having been revealed to the Byzanthine emperors by an angel. The material was lobbed or launched in pots or spewed onto other ships using a ship-mounted syphon. Roxelana, the concubine of Suleyman the Magnificent, who later became his wife and a palace power broker active behind the curtains, working towards and achieving the death of other sons of the sultan to ensure the succession of one of her sons to the throne. Interesting stuff.
