{"id":161,"date":"2007-10-13T23:51:58","date_gmt":"2007-10-13T13:51:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.travelsignposts.com\/wordpress\/?p=161"},"modified":"2007-10-13T23:51:58","modified_gmt":"2007-10-13T13:51:58","slug":"the-basilica-cistern-istanbul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.travelsignposts.com\/wordpress\/turkey\/things-to-see-in-istanbul\/the-basilica-cistern-istanbul","title":{"rendered":"The Basilica Cistern &#8211; Istanbul"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"float: right\"><script type=\"text\/javascript\"><!--\r\ngoogle_ad_client = \"pub-1009507070974015\";\r\ngoogle_alternate_ad_url = \"http:\/\/www.travelsignposts.com\/google_adsense_script.html\";\r\ngoogle_ad_width = 300;\r\ngoogle_ad_height = 250;\r\ngoogle_ad_format = \"300x250_as\";\r\ngoogle_ad_type = \"text_image\";\r\n\/\/2007-06-30: TSBlog 300x250\r\ngoogle_ad_channel = \"2928184950\";\r\ngoogle_color_border = \"FFFFFF\";\r\ngoogle_color_bg = \"FFFFFF\";\r\ngoogle_color_link = \"FF6600\";\r\ngoogle_color_text = \"000000\";\r\ngoogle_color_url = \"339933\";\r\n\/\/-->\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"\r\n  src=\"http:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/show_ads.js\">\r\n<\/script><\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re in the vicinity of Hagia Sophia, one of the magnificent Istanbul attractions not to be missed is the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.travelsignposts.com\/Destination\/v\/Turkey\/Istanbul\/Cistern\/AJP_2098.jpg.html\" title=\"Basilica Cistern\">Basilica Cistern<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0Situated near the south-west of Hagia Sophia, this massive cistern was founded by Justinian (527 &#8211; 565) primarily to <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" vspace=\"3\" align=\"right\" width=\"110\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.travelsignposts.com\/Destination\/d\/35181-2\/AJP_2098.jpg?resize=110%2C85\" hspace=\"3\" alt=\"Basilica Cistern\" height=\"85\" style=\"width: 110px; height: 85px\" title=\"Basilica Cistern\" \/>supply water to the palaces in the area.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" vspace=\"3\" align=\"left\" width=\"110\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.travelsignposts.com\/Destination\/d\/35179-2\/AJP_2093.jpg?resize=110%2C85\" hspace=\"3\" alt=\"Stone steps into the Basilica Cistern\" height=\"85\" style=\"width: 110px; height: 85px\" title=\"Stone steps into the Basilica Cistern\" \/>Also known as <em>Yerebatan Saray\u0131<\/em> , the name Basilica Cistern originates from a basilica which originally stood on the grounds of the cistern.\u00a0 The entrance is non-descript, but once you <a href=\"http:\/\/www.travelsignposts.com\/Destination\/v\/Turkey\/Istanbul\/Cistern\/AJP_2093.jpg.html\" title=\"Stone steps into the Cistern\">descend the stone steps<\/a>, and after your eyes adjust to the darkness, you&#8217;ll see an impressive forest of columns arranged in rows.\u00a0 This atmospheric place really has the <em><strong>&#8216;wow&#8217;<\/strong><\/em> factor and it&#8217;s no wonder that James Bond played out one of his action scenes in From Russian with Love in the Cistern.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" vspace=\"3\" align=\"right\" width=\"110\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.travelsignposts.com\/Destination\/d\/35183-2\/AJP_2099.jpg?resize=110%2C85\" hspace=\"3\" alt=\"Cistern columns\" height=\"85\" style=\"width: 110px; height: 85px\" title=\"Cistern columns\" \/>There are 336 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.travelsignposts.com\/Destination\/v\/Turkey\/Istanbul\/Cistern\/AJP_2099.jpg.html\" title=\"Cistern columns\">columns<\/a>, each 9 metres high and 4.8 metres apart and they&#8217;re arranged in 12 rows of 28 columns each.\u00a0 Majority of these columns are composed of one piece whereas some\u00a0are made up of two pieces.\u00a0 Walk along the platforms and you&#8217;ll see columns with\u00a0engravings of various types\u00a0on them.\u00a0 They\u00a0appear to have been taken from older buildings.\u00a0 The capitals of these columns\u00a0are mainly Ionic and Corinthian styles with\u00a0a few Doric style with no engravings.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" vspace=\"3\" align=\"left\" width=\"85\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.travelsignposts.com\/Destination\/d\/35191-2\/AJP_2114.jpg?resize=85%2C110\" hspace=\"3\" alt=\"Upside down Medusa head\" height=\"110\" style=\"width: 85px; height: 110px\" title=\"Upside down Medusa head\" \/>To the north-west corner of the cistern are two unusual <a href=\"http:\/\/www.travelsignposts.com\/Destination\/v\/Turkey\/Istanbul\/Cistern\/AJP_2114.jpg.html\" title=\"Upside down Medusa head\">Medusa <\/a>column bases, one of the heads\u00a0placed upside down, whereas the other is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.travelsignposts.com\/Destination\/v\/Turkey\/Istanbul\/Cistern\/AJP_2110.jpg.html\" title=\"Sideways Medusa head\">laid sideways<\/a>.\u00a0 The origin of these heads are not know, however it is believed that they were removed from antique buildings of the late Roman period and subsequently brought to the cistern.\u00a0 Researchers believe that the heads were placed in their unusual positions deiberately.<img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" vspace=\"3\" align=\"right\" width=\"85\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.travelsignposts.com\/Destination\/d\/35189-2\/AJP_2110.jpg?resize=85%2C110\" hspace=\"3\" alt=\"Sideways Medusa head\" height=\"110\" style=\"width: 85px; height: 110px\" title=\"Sideways Medusa head\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The cistern has capacity to store 100,000 tons of water.\u00a0 You&#8217;ll see lots of fish swimming in them now.\u00a0 Near the exit of the cistern there is a restaurant where you can enjoy a meal in this stunning\u00a0setting.\u00a0 I thoroughly enjoyed our visit and would definitely visit again next time we&#8217;re in Istanbul.<\/p>\n<p>Helen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you&#8217;re in the vicinity of Hagia Sophia, one of the magnificent Istanbul attractions not to be missed is the Basilica Cistern.\u00a0\u00a0Situated near the south-west of Hagia Sophia, this massive cistern was founded by Justinian (527 &#8211; 565) primarily to supply water to the palaces in the area. Also known as Yerebatan Saray\u0131 , the [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[110],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-things-to-see-in-istanbul"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Basilica Cistern - Istanbul - Travel Signposts Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.travelsignposts.com\/wordpress\/turkey\/things-to-see-in-istanbul\/the-basilica-cistern-istanbul\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Helen Page\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.travelsignposts.com\/wordpress\/turkey\/things-to-see-in-istanbul\/the-basilica-cistern-istanbul\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.travelsignposts.com\/wordpress\/turkey\/things-to-see-in-istanbul\/the-basilica-cistern-istanbul\",\"name\":\"The Basilica Cistern - 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