Water for a capital
Constantinople had a problem: no large river and long summer droughts. Water came from springs and reservoirs in the hills to the west, carried by aqueducts, and was stored in cisterns, open or covered, all over the city. The largest covered one lay beneath the Stoa Basilica, a colonnaded square near the palace and the law courts. That is how it got its name.
After the Nika riot of 532 destroyed much of the centre, Justinian rebuilt it, together with Hagia Sophia across the square. The cistern was part of the same works. It could hold nearly 80,000 cubic metres of water, enough to supply the palace during a siege or a dry season.
A forest of columns
The reservoir is about 138 metres long and 65 wide. Its roof of brick vaults rests on 336 columns, each about 9 metres tall, set in 12 rows. Many were taken from older buildings: the capitals are of different types, Ionic and Corinthian, and some shafts do not match. Builders in Constantinople reused ancient material all the time, and a hidden cistern was the right place for pieces that no longer fitted together.
One column is carved all over with a pattern of eyes or tear-drops, which has earned it the name of “weeping column”. Similar carved columns are known from a forum of the late fourth century, so it was probably brought from there.
The two Medusa heads
In the northwest corner, two columns stand on large marble blocks carved with the head of Medusa, the monster of Greek myth whose gaze turned people to stone. One lies on its side, the other upside down. No one knows where they came from: they are Roman work, probably taken from an earlier building in the city. Their position has inspired many explanations, from protection against the evil eye to a Christian wish to humiliate a pagan image. The simplest is practical: the builders turned the blocks to the height they needed.
The sunken palace
After the Ottoman conquest of 1453 the cistern still supplied water to nearby buildings, but its existence was largely forgotten by the city’s new rulers. Around 1540 the French scholar Petrus Gyllius, studying the antiquities of Constantinople, heard that people living above could lower buckets through holes in their basements and even catch fish. He went down by boat and described what he saw. The Turks call it Yerebatan Sarayı, “the sunken palace”.
The cistern was cleaned and fitted with walkways in the 1980s and opened to visitors. It closed again in 2017 for earthquake strengthening and restoration, and reopened in 2022. Its dim colonnades have also appeared in films, from a James Bond story of the 1960s to more recent thrillers.
Where to see it
The cistern lies in Sultanahmet, the historic centre of Istanbul, a short walk from Hagia Sophia; the entrance is a small building on the street, and stairs lead down to the walkways above the water.
Sources
- Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, Basilica Cistern.
- Euronews and Daily Sabah (August 2022) on the restoration and reopening.
- P. Gyllius, De Topographia Constantinopoleos (1561).
- J. Crow, J. Bardill and R. Bayliss, The Water Supply of Byzantine Constantinople (London, 2008).
