“Atilla the Hun, destroyer of civilizations who named himself the scourge of God, took one look at them and turned around. The Avars battled the walls uselessly until their catapults ran out of rocks. The Turks tried to tunnel under them but found the foundations too solid. The Arabs tried to starve the city into submission, but ran out of food themselves and had to resort to cannibalism. It took the guns of the modern world to finally bring them down.”