After a morning of walking around Topkapi Palace, we split up and had lunch, meeting back after some very yum Kebabs (very unlike NZ kebabs, might I add). We walked down the cobbled street, with shops and high walls on one side and the road and trains running up the middle. It was busy, as you can imagine and the people are quite comfortable brushing, bumping and stepping into one another, not really prevented from doing so as the cobbles are about the size of a slice of bread and all uneven heights and edges. Steps and curbs are also a range of varying heights, from almost non existent marble steps, worn down from thousands of years of feet, to stone steps as high as my knee! We arrived at a stone doorway and immediately headed downstairs on a wide stone stairway. The air became crisp and cool as we got down to the level of the cistern and it opened up into a vast chamber with a stone and brick, arched ceiling, supported by a large number of columns. I have some great photos, which I will add to the blog when I get home, in the meantime you have to put up with my description.
The cistern was built between 527 - 565 AD and has the capacity to hold 100 000 tonnes of water. During the Ottoman period, sometime after 1453, it was abandoned and fresh running water was preferred. When it was found again, it was restored and columns replaced as bits were collapsing. Finally, in 1985, it was fully restored and 50 000 tones of mud was taken out. In one of the back corners are two columns have Medusa head plinths at their base, one is side on and the other is completely upside down. It is not know where or when these were added into the cistern, but they are pretty impressive.
Funny- an Asian woman was trying to line up the upside down Medusa, so all the Kiwis stopped and waited, and waited, and waited........ Eventually when the lining up of the photo was just getting ridiculous, this southern accent came from behind "come on woman! take the bloody photo!'
I am pretty sure she didn't speak English, but the tone and the key word known to all Asian tourists 'photo' ensured she understood the intent! She burst out with a heap of either explaining or complaining, but the polite 'don't get in the way of her photo' spell was broken and we all poured past!
I got a photo on the way through and it took me about three seconds😜
The cistern was built between 527 - 565 AD and has the capacity to hold 100 000 tonnes of water. During the Ottoman period, sometime after 1453, it was abandoned and fresh running water was preferred. When it was found again, it was restored and columns replaced as bits were collapsing. Finally, in 1985, it was fully restored and 50 000 tones of mud was taken out. In one of the back corners are two columns have Medusa head plinths at their base, one is side on and the other is completely upside down. It is not know where or when these were added into the cistern, but they are pretty impressive.
Funny- an Asian woman was trying to line up the upside down Medusa, so all the Kiwis stopped and waited, and waited, and waited........ Eventually when the lining up of the photo was just getting ridiculous, this southern accent came from behind "come on woman! take the bloody photo!'
I am pretty sure she didn't speak English, but the tone and the key word known to all Asian tourists 'photo' ensured she understood the intent! She burst out with a heap of either explaining or complaining, but the polite 'don't get in the way of her photo' spell was broken and we all poured past!
I got a photo on the way through and it took me about three seconds😜
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