Basilica Cistern

Dimensions 138 x 65. Approximately 1500 years old structure that can carry 80 thousand m3 of water. So the building you are looking at is from ancient times.

We are talking about 28 columns in 12 rows, there are 336 columns in total. Each column is 9 meters high. So no matter how you look at it, the gap is the size of the first two floors of an apartment building, including the shop.

So where does water come from here? teee is from belgard forest. So water comes from Sarıyer to Fatih.. So how does it come? It comes thanks to the arch, which we also know as the Bozdoğan arch (I guess everyone has seen it, even if they have not been to Istanbul in their lives, it is one of the thematic images used in the background on TV when the weather forecast is given). It also comes from the Mağlova belt in Eyüpsultan.

Many times this arch undergoes restoration. One of the interesting information is that while today we are walking on the platform, in the past it was used by boats.

There are Medusa statues in the far northwest.

These are the structures that are most familiar to tourists. One is looking to the side, the other is standing upside down. These are carved, not just fitted and sewn. So there is fine workmanship. It is unknown why they lie upside down or sideways. It is also thought that it was taken from a building during the Roman period. There is no information about why they exist. According to belief, there are gorgons in Greece and Medusa in Greek mythology, and there are also those who claim that she leans sideways or stands upside down to destroy or reduce the power of her gaze. Even though I told a few people, I did not get the necessary reaction. Another Medusa statue is displayed flat in the garden of the Istanbul Archaeological Museum, and there is even a broken one in front of it and another behind it.

We have no idea where they came from because there is no signboard or anything explaining it in the garden of the Istanbul Archaeological Museum. (Although, while I was writing, I noticed that there was a small sign at the bottom, so if it had something informative it would be memorable, right?) I wonder where it came from, where was it? who knows.

While visiting the cistern, some columns broke towards the middle, almost ready to break. They are columns that have undergone restoration.

If you look carefully at the tops of the initial columns near the stairs, you can see sculptures such as heads with engraved/carved facial features.

Some of the columns seem to have holes in them, who knows whether it was due to moisture or something else, or whether some work was going to be done there and it was abandoned at that time.

There are green stains on some of the columns. I wonder if a picture would be drawn or moss? Did it catch on and become fossilized or something? That's interesting too... who knows what? or it's on the walls.

The most interesting column has only one column. Do they call it the tear column or the crying column? Of course, they are not there on a sign or anything, we always see them by reading them on the search engine. This column stands out very much. Who knows why they did this again..