Palace Cistern (Yerebatan Saray), Istanbul

Have you seen James Bond serial? I bet you have .... Do you remember when Roger Moore (I guess it was already him playing the role) was escaping from some Embassy in the Orient thru a hidden passage leading under the building and then found himself in a huge colonnaded indoors where he took a rawing boat to sail away????
Well, that was the place :)

Very spectacular inside. There is a permanent light and sound show, which is very organically fits the interior, some parts of the cistern are really spooky :))

You enter through small, ordinary doors, invited in by a colleague who accidentally stopped to read an even more ordinary board in the front. You dwell on the 7EUR entry fee. After taking that chance, they tell you to always watch your step because it’s slippery.

Down the stairs, and humiliation of your own skepticism slaps you across the face. You stand in front of 10000 sq. meter covered by a dome leaning on 336 columns. You stand “in” where the water, brought here from the 19km distant Belgrade Forrest through a system of Aqueducts, used to be.

You feel small walking down the Cistern’s pathway labyrinth while drops of moisture create perfectly concentric circles beating against the surface of the water now below you.

A very strange tourist attraction, otherwise known as the 'sunken palace'. It is a vast, columned chamber in which classical music is played and art is exhibited. This was one of the water cisterns used to supply Byzantine Constantinople. Along with the remains of the Aqueduct of Valens it is a reminder that Constantinople was born a Roman city. The supply of water was probably the greatest triumph of Roman engineering - it's been said that the city of Rome in the first century AD was supplied with more water than New York City in 1985.

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The cistern is 70m wide and 140m long and has 336 columns, most of them topped with Byzantine Corinthian capitals. Two of them representing a point of attraction because, a Medusa head were used as a base, which probably were part of an altar dedicated to water nymphs. The place at the base of the columns suggests that the constructors were Christians, who did not want to revere a God of a pagan period.
(it is open daily, 9.00-17.00, between October-April, 8.30-16.00, entrance fee around 8$)

It is a vast underground cistern, a beautiful example of the Byzantine engineering. It was build in 532 AD by Justinian to fulfill the bigger and bigger need of water for the Imperial Palace. The Ottoman conquerors discovered it 100 years after they conquered the city when they found out that the citizen supplied themselves with water through holes made in the cellars of their houses.
(it is open daily, 9.00-17.00, between October-April, 8.30-16.00, entrance fee around 8$)

This is the largest underground cistern in Istanbul and the only one that has been restored (in 1987) and opened to public. It was built in the 4th century in Sultanahmet near Hagia Sofia and the Blue Mosque. For much of the Ottoman period it served as a well and a fishing hole for the locals.
Today, you can still watch fish swimming in the water and walk through the illuminated columns. Classical music adds to the mystery of the place.
You can also see Medusa's head at the base of two of the 336 columns. In Greek mythology, Medusa is one of Gorgons, the female monsters of the underground, who could turn people into stone. The Medusa were used to protect buildings.

Entrance fee : 10 million liras

One of the most attractive monuments to see in Istanbul is the Basilica Cistern. It was built in Ad 532 and this is the largest surviving Byzantine cistern. Low light inside gives at this place a dreamy atmosphere.

This byzantine cistern was the main source of water for Istanbul. It is well restored, about 140m long and 70 wide with decorated columns that support the arched roof. At the end of the walkway you can see two Medusa heads used as column bases.