Basilica Cistern

When those Byzantine emperors built something, they certainly did it properly! This extraordinary subterranean structure, built by Justinian in 532 (perhaps on the site of an earlier cistern), is the largest surviving Byzantine cistern in İstanbul. Now one of the city’s most popular tourist attractions, it’s a great place to while away 30 minutes or so, especially during summer when its cavernous depths stay wonderfully cool. The cistern’s roof is 65m wide and 143m long, and is supported by 336 columns arranged in 12 rows. It once held 80,000 cubic metres of water, delivered via 20km of aqueducts from a reservoir near the Black Sea. The cistern was constructed using columns, capitals and plinths from ruined buildings, and its symmetry and sheer grandeur of conception are quite extraordinary. Don’t miss the two columns in the northwestern corner supported by blocks carved into Medusa heads or the column towards the centre featuring a teardrop design – we don’t know where these columns originally came from but it’s great to speculate. Walking on the raised wooden platforms, you’ll feel the water dripping from the vaulted ceiling and see schools of ghostly carp patrolling the water. Lighting is atmospheric and the small cafe near the exit is certainly an unusual spot to enjoy a glass of tea. Like most sites in İstanbul, the cistern has an unusual history. Known in Byzantium as the Basilica Cistern because it lay underneath the Stoa Basilica, one of the great squares on the first hill, it was used to store water for the Great Palace and surrounding buildings. Eventually closed, the cistern seems to have been forgotten by the city authorities some time before the Conquest. Enter scholar Petrus Gyllius, who in 1545 was researching Byzantine antiquities in the city and was told by locals that they were able to miraculously obtain water by lowering buckets in their basement floors. Some were even catching fish this way. Intrigued, Gyllius explored the neighbourhood and finally discovered a house through whose basement he accessed the cistern. Even after his discovery, the Ottomans (who referred to the cistern as Yerebatan Saray) didn’t treat the underground palace with the respect it deserved – it became a dumping ground for all sorts of junk, as well as corpses. Fortunately, later restorations, most notably in the 18th century and between 1955 and 1960, saw it properly maintained. It was cleaned and renovated in 1985 by the İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality and opened to the public in 1987. James Bond fans will recognise the cistern as one of the locations in the film From Russia With Love (1963).