Yerebatan Saray Cistern
written by wil6ka
on May 9th, 2008
, 1 submission
, one comment
(3 votes)
One of the most amazing things about Istanbul is that it collects so many architectural styles and historic moments. Well, you can say this about Berlin, too, but in Istanbul you go way back. Before the Arabian influence took over it was a merely Christian area and during the Byzantium the architecture was very roman.
And as the Romans were highly skilled in building infrastructures of cities they had build hundreds of cisterns below the city to assure fresh water and to remove dump. The biggest of them is the Yerabatan, hence it holds 80.000 cubic meters of water. But this is hardly seen. But you can’t close your eyes in front of the beauty of 336 marble columns. They used 7000 slaves to erect all these columns and they are displayed in perfect geometrical order.
Nowadays they have a great management of little lighters at every column. The atmosphere is very pleasant and because it is so dark it is a very personal experience for the visitor. It is so dark that you don’t even see the other tourist. But it is also so dark that you really have to watch your step: It is dripping wet in the whole area and you should not try to do the dive. The main attraction within the attraction is a sculpture called the “Medusa”. It is an ancient myth that says that everyone, who looked at her will instantly transform into a stone sculpture. Therefore this Medusa was put there for protective reasons. So you should watch out. The Yerebatan was built in 527 and is also called the sunken palace because of the many columns that look like they would hold a roof. And despite its ancient background it is a modern film-star. There is a scene in James Bonds “From Russia with Love” where Roger Moore is diving through the columns of Yerebatan.
http://www.turkeytravelplanner.com/go/Istanbul/Sights/Sultanahmet/Yerebatan.html
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