Basilica Cistern

Entrance to the cistern

.

- vast underground water cistern
- laid out under Justinian in 532

- for a century after the Ottoman

didn't know of its existence

- was rediscovered after people were found to be

collecting water by lowering buckets

through holes in their basements

. Pic with a flash

- this is more how it looked like,

dark
.

Pic without a flash

- too light, but can be seen better
.

The cistern's roof is held by 336 columns,

each over 8m high.

Only app. 2/3 of the original structure is visible today,

the rest having been bricked up in the 19th century

. Plenty of fish
. A column resting on Medus head base
. and another column on a turned Medusa base

- these bases are evidence of plundering

by the Byzantines from earlier mouments

- thought to mark a nymphaeum,

a shrine tothe water nymphs

.

Basilica Cistern

Yerbatan Sarayi

13 Yerebatan Cad

Sultanahmet

Istanbul

.