BASILICA CISTERN

Basilica Cistern is located adjacent to Hagia Sphia and the Blue Mosque.  ("Basilica" does not mean church as westerners use it, but "marketplace.")  It was built in the 6^th Century by some 7000 slaves to provide water to the city.  It has 336 30’ high columns, scavenged from other structures.  They have various design features, but were meant to be submerged, and not seen, so their variety did not matter.  There are two heads of Medea included.  Yesim told us that recently the city proclaimed that bus traffic could no longer travel over the cisterns for fear of causing damage or collapse.  

Near the entrance is a stone stele, signpost and walkway, all showing the way elsewhere, since this was for a thousand years, the center of everything that mattered. 

 The cistern.

 The water level would have been at the top of the capitals of the columns.

 Medusa must have been handy when they needed to boost a couple of columns a bit higher. Note the snakes on the side of her head. 

 Only one column has a surface design different from all the others...a coincidence.