The next chapter of my Trip Report covers our visit to the Basilica Cistern in Istanbul.<\/p>\n
Here is the updated index to other posts as part of the overall Trip Report:<\/p>\n
Lufthansa First Class Services from Chicago to Frankfurt<\/p>\n
Lufthansa First Class Lounge in Frankfurt<\/p>\n
Istanbul \u2013 Sultan Ahmed (Sultanahmet) Mosque.<\/p>\n
Istanbul \u2013 The Basilica Cistern.<\/p>\n
Istanbul \u2013 Spice Market and Grand Bazaar.<\/p>\n
Istanbul \u2013 Park Hyatt Macka Palas.<\/p>\n
Istanbul \u2013 Our Day with Ihsan (besttaxidriver.com).<\/p>\n
Istanbul \u2013 Hagia Sophia.<\/p>\n
Istanbul \u2013 Other Mosques and Churches.<\/p>\n
Istanbul \u2013 I find out what Zultanite is\u2026.<\/p>\n
Istanbul \u2013 The Food We Found.<\/p>\n
Istanbul \u2013 Turkish Airlines\u2019 International CIP Lounge.<\/p>\n
London \u2013 Hyatt Andaz Liverpool Street.<\/p>\n
London \u2013 Opening of Parliament \u2013 Great pictures of the Queen and procession to Parliament.<\/p>\n
London \u2013 \u2018The Sunshine Boys\u2019 at the Savoy Theater (Danny DeVito and Richard Griffiths)\u2026..BRILLIANT, MUST SEE!<\/p>\n
London \u2013 Spitalfield\u2019s Antique Market \u2013 And the lesson I learned.<\/p>\n
London \u2013 Churchill War Rooms and Churchill Museum.<\/p>\n
London \u2013 Photos from around town.<\/p>\n
London \u2013 Dinner at Petrus<\/p>\n
London \u2013 St. James Park. Very friendly squirrels and ducks.<\/p>\n
London \u2013 Covent Gardens.<\/p>\n
London \u2013 All the other things that I can\u2019t think of at the moment\u2026.<\/p>\n
Pluckley \u2013 They said it was haunted\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n
ISTANBUL: THE BASILICA CISTERN<\/p>\n
One of the more impressive sights that we took in during our trip to Istanbul actually was underground. Built in the 6th Century, it is one of the largest Cisterns in Istanbul (hundreds of other cisterns exist beneath the city). During it\u2019s functional years it had supplied water to the First Hill area of Istanbul which includes Topkapi Palace and the Grand Palace of Constantinople. The Cistern had functionally provided water well into the days of the Ottoman Empire and beyond.<\/p>\n
After paying a 10 Lira admission fee and descending 52 steps to reach the Cistern the initial challenge was adjusting to the extremely low light conditions but after a minute or two, our eyes adjusted and what we saw was impressive. This mammoth Cistern lays beneath the streets above and has withstood 1500 years of war, conquest, fires, riots and growth of the city and really speaks to the engineering and construction skills of the time. To give you an idea of the scope of the Cistern, here are a few key statistics (courtesy of Wikipedia):<\/p>\n
Square Footage: 105,000 sq. ft. (9800 sq. meters)<\/p>\n
Capacity: 2,800,000 cu. ft. of water (80,000 cubic meters)<\/p>\n
Columns: 336 (marble) \/ each 9 feet high arranged in 12 rows of 28 columns<\/p>\n
Today there is only a little bit of water left, perhaps only a foot or so in depth. What surprised me at first glance into the water is the sheer amount of fish that patrol the Cistern.<\/p>\n
The fish were a surprise…..<\/p>\n
The architecture of the columns and the dome ceilings demonstrate the efforts put into the construction. The columns are believed to have been recycled from other ruins from Istanbul and surrounding areas. You\u2019ll notice in some of the photos that the columns are not all identical. It is thought that 7,000 slaves were used to build the Cistern.<\/p>\n
One of the most interesting aspects of the Cistern are the two marble blocks with the carving of Medusa\u2019s head that were converted into bases for the columns. As part of the superstition that exists with Medusa and her ability to turn gazers into stone, one blocks were was upside and the other was turned onto it\u2019s side in an attempt to prevent direct eye contact:<\/p>\n
Medusa “Pedestal” block supporting a column<\/p>\n
Another Medusa base (turned upside down to prevent “gaze”)<\/p>\n
Taking decent photographs in near-zero light conditions was a bit challenging. Don\u2019t use a flash, and images can be a bit blurry, use a flash, and you risk washing out the photo. I\u2019ve picked the ones that I think do the best job of illustrating the Cistern and its beauty. Pay close attention to the variety of column designs that were used.<\/p>\n
One of the initial views<\/p>\n
What hundreds of years of water does to Marble….<\/p>\n
Water’s influence on a column<\/p>\n
The following picture is of a column thought specifically to have been carved as a memorial to the slaves who built the Cistern. The teardrops are thought to represent the pain and suffering endured by the slaves.<\/p>\n
The Basilica Cistern can get very busy and lines can become long especially when tourist groups visit the area. The entrance to the Cistern is only steps away from the Hagia Sophia and Sultan Ahmed (Blue Mosque) and can easily be added to an itinerary that includes visiting these 2 sites. I would suggest planning to spend about an hour in the Cistern (not counting the time it may take to get inside) in order to fully appreciate it.<\/p>\n
via Lufthansa Flyer – Istanbul, Turkey \u2013 The Basilica Cistern – USATODAY.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The next chapter of my Trip Report covers our visit to the Basilica Cistern in Istanbul. Here is the updated index to other posts as part of the overall Trip Report: Lufthansa First Class Services from Chicago to Frankfurt Lufthansa First Class Lounge in Frankfurt Istanbul \u2013 Sultan Ahmed (Sultanahmet) Mosque. Istanbul \u2013 The Basilica […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":33840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1094],"tags":[4448],"class_list":["post-54145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tourism","tag-basilica-cistern"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}