Istanbul Tourism – The Basilica Cistern
Why the Istanbul Tourist Must See the Yerebatan Sarayi
Mar 7, 2009
With so many magnificent buildings to be seen in Istanbul, it might be hard to persuade the visitor to go underground and inspect a water cistern. Nevertheless, anyone who neglects to see the Basilica Cistern misses an extraordinary sight.
Accessing the Istanbul Basilica Cistern
Situated just to the southwest of the famous Hagia Sophia, the cistern is accessed from an unremarkable entrance. The visitor pays a 10 Turkish Lira fee and proceeds down some fifty stone stairs, which are often wet and a little slippery.
The view that awaits is a seemingly endless cavern – in fact, it’s an impressive 140 metres by 70 metres – a black lake from which rises row upon row of sturdy marble columns that hold up the arched roof. The effect is of an underground cathedral, yet the watery reflections of the eerily floodlit columns on the vast lake bring to mind the underground lake in Phantom of the Opera. The majesty of the place gives rise to the local Turkish name for it, Yerebatan Sarayi, meaning “sunken Palace”.
The Construction of the Basilica Cistern
This water storage area is remarkable not only for the engineering feat but for its very antiquity. The feat was undertaken by the Emperor Justinian I(527-565). According to the Turkish Cultural information Centre, the walls are 4.8 meters thick. Walls and bricked floor are covered with a waterproofing layer of mortar.
The 336 9 meter tall columns appear to have been recycled from earlier buildings, as they have a mix of Corinthian, Ionic capitals and Doric. The storage holds 100,000 tonnes of water. It served the palace area right up till the time of the Ottoman conquest in 1453. The Ottomans installed running water and the cistern became obsolete.
Today, visitors can wander the specially constructed boardwalks, see the fish (mainly large carp) that swim lazily in the shallow water, and suffer the occasional plop of water on their heads seeping from the roof high over head.
The Medusa Heads
Most tourists head for the Medusas. The bases of two of the farther columns are huge blocks with the snake-haired Medusa face carved on them. Why one was placed upside down and the other sideways is a matter for conjecture. Perhaps, as the belief in warding off the evil eye is strong in Turkey, this placement was a strategy to negate the power of the Medusa.
The Basilica Cistern Café
A tour of the site wouldn’t be complete without having a coffee at one of the candle-lit café tables in the damp gloom of the cistern.
In its own way, the Basilica Cistern is as remarkable as the blue Mosque or the Hagia Sophia and should be on every visitor’s must-see list.
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