Istanbul: The Underground Cistern

The first 'touristy' place we saw was the underground cisterns. These were a huge underground room, dark and damp, with walkways all around over water about 2-3 feet deep. This place was built during the height of Constantinople. It held something like 100 tonnes of water and provided running water for the palace and its surrounds.

Here we are on the platform, looking at the columns and the lights, reflected in the water.

Now this was quite interesting! It is a medusa head, sitting there as it was found at the bottom on the cistern, upside down. There were two of them, the other on was on her side. No one knows who made them, or why there were there.

Here is a natural light shot of the columns that hold up the roof of the cistern.

This flash shot shows what the structure looked like. This kind of dome and column architecture is seen in a lot of buildings, including the Haggia Sophia and the Blue Mosque.

This picture, taken by an Asian tourist, after we had taken pictures of them, proves that we were actually there and didn't just buy a CD of cistern pictures.