Istanbul › Places and landmarks
Basilica Cistern
Yerebatan Sarnıcı
The underground water store of Justinian, a forest of 336 columns standing in the water.
Photo: Bjørn Christian Tørrissen, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Under the streets by the Hagia Sophia lies the largest of the city’s old cisterns, built under Justinian in the 6th century to hold water for the palace. 336 marble columns, each 9 metres tall, carry its brick vaults, and many of them were taken from older buildings.
The Turks call it Yerebatan, the sunken palace. Visitors walk on raised paths over the water between the lit columns, down to the two heads of Medusa, one on its side and one upside down, that serve as bases for two of them. Visit it in 3D ›
More in Istanbul
Hagia SophiaJustinian’s great church of 537, with its dome 55 metres high: a church, then a mosque, a museum and a mosque again.
Blue MosqueThe mosque of Sultan Ahmed I, with six minarets and some twenty thousand blue tiles from İznik inside.
HippodromeThe long square where Byzantium held its chariot races, with an Egyptian obelisk and a bronze serpent column still on it.
Topkapı PalaceThe palace of the Ottoman sultans for almost four hundred years, on the tip of the peninsula above the Bosphorus.
Grand BazaarOne of the oldest and largest covered markets in the world, some sixty streets and four thousand shops under one roof.
Spice BazaarThe L-shaped covered market by the New Mosque, full of spices, dried fruit, tea and Turkish delight.
New MosqueThe great mosque on the water at Eminönü, begun in 1597 and finished 68 years later.
Galata BridgeThe bridge over the Golden Horn from Eminönü to Karaköy, lined with anglers on top and fish restaurants below.
Sirkeci StationThe end of the line for the Orient Express from Paris, a station of 1890 by the sea.
Column of ConstantineThe column Constantine the Great set up in 330 for the founding of his new capital, held together by iron hoops.
SimitThe sesame bread ring sold from red carts on every corner, eaten for breakfast with a glass of tea.
FerriesThe white ferries that carry Istanbul across the Bosphorus between Europe and Asia, from the quays of Eminönü.