basilica cistern

The next day I headed out to see some more sites I walked from my part of town, Taksim, to Sultan Ahmet--the same place where I was the previous day. I wanted to see the basilica Cistern but first I visited a large park near Topkapi Palace and enjoyed the view of the Bosphorus. I then walked along the Bosphorus for a good hour and then decided I needed to hit my site before I got way to tired (it was really hot, too).

The Basilica Cistern was really cool. 336 columns in 12 neat rows. It was used to store water for the great palace and other buildings in the area, but was eventually closed and then completely forgotten about. It was rediscovered in the late sixteenth century by a scholar who was researching Byzantine antiquities--but the Ottomans didn't do much with it, and it in fact became a bigger dumping ground for everything including corpses (gross). Interest in the cistern rose again and restoration began in 1955 and again in 1960 and it was then better maintained. In 1985 it was totally cleaned and renovated and is now a hot tourist attraction. I think was my favorite site.

Pictured here are some of the 336 columns.