The Great Bombard or Dardanelles Gun (Ottoman Heavy Artillery)
History: Was a 15th-century siege cannon, specifically a super-sized bombard, which saw action in the 1807 Dardanelles operation. It was built in 1464 by Turkish military engineer Munir Ali and modelled after the Orban bombard that was used for the Ottoman besiegers of Constantinople in 1453. Such super-sized bombards had been employed in Ottoman warfare and in Western European siege warfare since the beginning of the 15th century. According to Paul Hammer and Gábor Ágoston, the technology could have been introduced from other Islamic countries which had earlier used cannons. The Ottoman army successfully deployed large bombards at the siege of Salonica in 1430, and against the Hexamilion wall at the Isthmus of Corinth in 1446. At the siege of Constantinople in 1453, the Ottomans employed a number of cannons, anywhere from 12 to 62. They were built at foundries that employed Turkish cannon founders and technicians, most notably Saruca,...