Istanbul › Places and landmarks
Column of Constantine
Çemberlitaş
The column Constantine the Great set up in 330 for the founding of his new capital, held together by iron hoops.
Photo: Dmitry A. Mottl, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
When Constantine the Great made Byzantium his capital in 330, he set up this column of red porphyry from Egypt in the middle of his new forum, with a statue of himself on top. The statue fell in a storm in 1106, and fires and earthquakes cracked the stone.
The iron hoops that hold the drums together give it its Turkish name, Çemberlitaş, the hooped stone. It stands on the Divan Yolu, the old main street of the city, where the tram stops by it on its way to the Grand Bazaar. Visit it in 3D ›
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