In the center of the Plaza of Pride stands a red brick fountain whose waters smell of brimstone. In the center of the fountain stands a monstrous harpy twenty feet tall made of hammered bronze, with a woman's face, gilded hair, ivory eyes, and pointed ivory teeth. Water gushes yellow from her heavy breasts. In the place of arms she had the wings of a bat or a dragon, her legs are the legs of an eagle, and behind she has a scorpion's curled tail. A heavy chain dangles from her talons, an open manacle at either end (III: 257)
Slaver's Bay is very hot, even in the early autumn (III: 258)
The Plaza of Pride is made of red brick (III: 258)
Astapor has stepped pyramids that have sloping triangular walls and diamond-shaped panes of colored glass for windows (III: 258, 304)
Astapor has fighting pits where all manner of entertainments are held, including putting girls up against bulls and small boys rolled in honey and other foods against a bear so that viewers may wager on which child the bear will eat first. The pits are named after their owners (III: 260, 265)
The lockstep legions of Old Ghis were disciplined (III: 260)
Astapori use silver coins called marks (III: 263)
The Astapori make use of scribes (III: 264, 269)
Astapor is most beautiful at dusk. The Good Masters light silk lanterns on every terrace so all the pyramdis glow with colored lights. Pleasure barges ply the river Worm, playing soft music and calling at the little islands for food and wine and other delights (III: 265)
All the streets, stepped pyramids, deep-dug fighting pits with their rings of descending seats, the sulfurous fountains and gloomy wine caves, and the ancient walls are made of the same red brick, old and crumbling. There is red dust everywhere, dancing down the gutters at each gust of wind (III: 266)
Astapori women veil their faces to keep the brick dust from their eyes, as it stings worse than sand (III: 266)
Astapor's streets are largely deserted in the heat of day (III: 266)
Elephants with latticework litters on their backs lumber about in the streets of Astapor (III: 266)
Wealthy young men with old names and fat purses, sons of the harpy, play at being guards, dressing up as Ghiscari scourges to pretend they still rule an empire. They wear their hairs teased, oiled, and twisted into fantastic shapes, and they have copper disks sewn to their cloaks of yellow silk. Their tunics are embroidered linen and below the waist they wear sandals and pleated linen skirts (III: 266, 271, 272)
Astapor is an ancient city, but not so populous as it was in its glory nor as crowded as Qarth or Pentos or Lys (III: 266)
Astapori slavers ride on white asses (III: 267)
Women wear gowns of sheer linen, sometimes decorated with things such as flakes of lapiz lazuli, and wear ivory combs in their hair (III: 267)
The overseers of slaves are slaves themselves, and at least some are tattooed with the harpy and chains across their chests (III: 267)
There is an old rhyme known to the maesters in Westeros and perhaps elsewhere that goes, "Bricks and blood built Astapor, and bricks and blood her people" (III: 267)
The bricks of Astapor are said to be red with the blood of the slaves who made them (III: 267)
Closer to the bay the city is fairer. The great brick pyramids line the shore, the largest of them some four hundred feet high (III: 268)
All manner of trees and vines and flowers grow on the broad terraces of the stepped pyramids (III: 268)
A gigantic harpy stands atop the harbor gate, made of crumbling baked red clay with no more than a stub of her scorpion's tail remaining and the chain in her hands old and rotten with rust (III: 269, 311)
Astapor is poorly defended, with no guards on the towers. Even a modest khalasar could take the city, but none has ever tried because of the Unsullied (III: 271, 272)
Every son of the harpy plays at being a high officer. On feast days they fight mock wars in the pits to demonstrate what brilliant commanders they are, but it's the eunuchs who do the dying (III: 272)
The folk of the hinterlands east of Astapor are all Ghiscari (III: 272)
East beyond the hills about Astapor lies Lhazar (III: 272)
Astapor has over a hundred slave traders, but the greatest are those who sell Unsullied. They work as one when it comes to those eunuch soldiers, because in ancient times their eight families had allied in the process of making and selling them (III: 305)
Astapor has thousands of eunuchs (III: 307)
The Astapori named the tranquil Worm River a stream. It is wide, slow, and crooked, and some of its tiny wooded islands are decorated with elegant marble statues (III: 312)
The Plaza of Pride is not large enough to contain more than 13,000 Unsullied and trainees arrayed in their ranks (III: 312)
The Plaza of Punishment fronts on Astapor's main gate, and is large enough for more than 13,000 Unsullied and trainees arrayed in their ranks. There are no bronze statues there, only a wooden platform where rebellious slaves are racked, flayed, and hanged. The Good Masters place them so they will be the first thing a new slave sees upon entering the city (III: 312)
The slavers flay rebellious slaves, peeling them as a man might peel an apple (III: 312)
Flaying is the punishment for a slave who raises a hand to his onwer (III: 312)
In Astapor, the city takes a tenth part of the price whenever a slave changes hands (III: 809)
Astapor is said to be ancient (V: 26)
An Astapori envoy's gift of gilded leather slippers decorated with green freshwater pearls (V: 38)