BASILICA CISTERN
The Basilica Cistern (Turkish: Yerebatan Sarayı - "Sunken Palace", or Yerebatan Sarnıcı "Sunken Cistern"), is the largest of several hundred ancient cisterns that lie beneath the city of
Istanbul (formerly Constantinople), Turkey.
The...
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BASILICA CISTERN
The Basilica Cistern (Turkish: Yerebatan Sarayı - "Sunken Palace", or Yerebatan Sarnıcı "Sunken Cistern"), is the largest of several hundred ancient cisterns that lie beneath the city of
Istanbul (formerly Constantinople), Turkey.
The cistern, located 500 feet (150 m) southwest
of the Hagia Sophia on the historical peninsula of Sarayburnu, was built in the 6th century
during the reign of Byzantine Emperor Justinian I.
History
The second Medusa head pillar
The name of this subterranean structure derives from a large public square on the First Hill of
Constantinople, the Stoa Basilica, beneath which it was originally constructed.
Before being
converted to a cistern, a great Basilica stood in its place, built between the 3rd and 4th
centuries during the Early Roman Age as a commercial, legal and artistic centre.
The basilica
was reconstructed by Ilius after a fire in 476.
Ancient texts indicated that the basilica contained gardens, surrounded by a colonnade and
facing
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