The Basilica Cistern
Three hundred and thirty-six columns under the street, holding the water of a city that could be besieged.
- Builtsixth century
- DistrictFatih
- UNESCO World Heritage
This is infrastructure, not display architecture: a city surrounded by salt water needed fresh water in reserve, and this is the largest of the hundreds of cisterns beneath Istanbul.
The columns were reused from older buildings, which shows — they do not match. Two of them stand on Medusa heads, one on its side and one upside down. Nobody knows why; the likeliest explanation is that they were simply stone of the right size.
It is cool down there even in August, which makes it the right stop in the middle of a summer afternoon in Sultanahmet.
What to look for
- The two Medusa heads in the far corner — one on its side, one upside down.
- The column of tears, carved with a pattern of eyes, said to remember the slaves who died building it.
- The capitals: not one matches the next, because they came from different buildings.
- The quiet. Three hundred and thirty-six columns and dripping water is what the city sounded like underneath.
Before you go
- Forty minutes is enough. It is small and you see all of it.
- It is cool down there even in August — the right stop in the middle of a summer afternoon.
- The floor is walkway and wet in places; shoes with grip.
- The light is very low. If you photograph, come prepared for that rather than for flash.
Nearby
Hagia Sophia
For a thousand years the largest cathedral in the world, then a mosque, then a museum, and a mosque again today.
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The Blue Mosque
Twenty thousand İznik tiles inside, six minarets outside, and still a working neighbourhood mosque.
Read more
Topkapı Palace
Four courtyards instead of one building — the logic of a campaign tent, in stone.
Read more