Back to history. One last thing about Venice that makes it special, at least for its time, Venice was a republic, not a monarchy or, God forbid, an empire. Its leaders were elected and had to answer to the populace, I mean, you know, at least the property-owning male populace. The ruler was the doge, and he got to live in a very nice house and wear a funny hat. The sultan of the Ottoman Empire also got to live in a nice house and wear a funny hat, but there the similarities end. To begin, the Ottomans were an empire that lasted from around 1300 CE until 1919, making it one of the longest-lasting and richest empires in world history. The Ottomans managed to blend their pastoral nomadic roots with some very un-nomadic empire building some really impressive architecture like this and this and this, making them very different from, wait for it, the Mongols.