Aqueduct of Valens

Rising majestically over the traffic on busy Atatürk Bulvarı, this limestone aqueduct is one of the city’s most distinctive landmarks. Commissioned by the Emperor Valens and completed in AD 378, it was part of an elaborate system sourcing water from the north of the city and linking more than 250km of water channels, some 30 bridges and over 100 cisterns within the city walls, making it one of the greatest hydraulic engineering achievements of ancient times. The aqueduct linked the third and fourth hills and carried water to a cistern at Beyazıt Sq before finally ending up at the Great Byzantine Palace. After the Conquest it supplied the Eski (Old) and Topkapı Palaces with water.