Constantinople, Istanbul and columns!

Really worth a visit. There is a little water in there but there was once a lot more - it could hold 80,000 cu metres. 

Our second day in Istanbul we went underground to explore the Basilica Cistern built around C6th AD but closed until the late 1980s.  It’s the largest surviving Byzantine Cistern in Istanbul and was constructed using over 300 columns many of which were salvaged from ruined temples. And there in lies an intriguing story. There are two columns with the head of Medusa (a Gorgon or daughter of a Gorgon) at their base - one is upside down and the other on its side. ‘They’ say that orienting them such negated the powers of the Gorgon. For the story goes that anyone who looked on Medusa would be turned to stone. Others say that they just fitted that way - you can make up your own mind. 

The eeriness of the place is perfect for mystery and intrigue and as such it has been the setting for a number of mystery movies but long before then it was a dumping ground for corpses!

One of the 300 odd columns is call the Crying Column or Pillar - it is always wet. It is said to have been erected in memory of the hundreds of slaves that lost their lives during the construction of this Cistern. After the Cistern was constructed, water came via aqueducts from a reservoir 20 odd km away near the Black Sea. 

The Cistern was ‘lost’ for a 1000 years! And was only rediscovered when a scholar of Byzantium heard stories of people drawing water from below their basements and even catching fish! We actually saw fish down there. Hundreds of years later the clean up and restoration began and continues today - it had been used as a rubbish dump for all manner of things - including corpses. An absolutely fascinating place, cool and inviting on a hot day!

This is called the Pillar of Tears or the crying column. Do nahed for the workers who died during the building of this Cistern 

And then there’s the hippodrome, Horse Square, with its beautiful pink granite Obelisk of Theodosius carved in Egypt in C16 BC and brought to Constantinople in C4th AD. I remember the area on the 80s as a bit of a jumble of fallen columns and ruins; there has been much restoration since then. 

Also standing on display in this ancient sporting arena are two other columns. The spiral bronze Serpent Column which originally stood in front of the Temple of Apollo in Delphi. The third column is the Rough-Stone Obelisk which was damaged by the Crusaders in C12th (they thought the plating was gold but it was gold covered bronze - they took the lot!). They also stole the famous bronze Triumphal Quadriga and placed it over the main door of Venice’s Basilica di San Marco. All in the make of God presumably! What’s with all the pillaging and looting!??!

Getting sick of columns? I’m going to tell you about two more but later .....