Cisterns of Istanbul Tour Half Day City Tour Available Every Mornings & Afternoons

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1 Cisterns of Istanbul Tour Half Day City Tour Available Every Mornings & Afternoons A Walking Tour in the old part of Istanbul - Sultanahmet Booking Turkey.ORG Tours are offering you a nice half day visit in Byzantine Cisterns & Remains visit. We organise the tours as private or in small number of groups upon the date & requests. We have flexibility in our tours. If you have any questions; please send us your suggestions by . Here you can see the itinerary. A Cistern is an ancient architectural enclave that houses water for the purpose of 'plumbing' and basically as a reservoir, though they are often reinterpreted later without water for functions other than they were originally intended, from housing soldiers during a war to being remodeled as a department store. They are still made today - usually less aesthetically - by people who live in a wilderness environment that lacks running water. Cisterns are in the same line as aquaducts and can be found, notably, in places like Jerusalem, Istanbul, and Rome. They are physically like medieval sewers, though the water was used for everything involving water in a city. There are at least 24 cisterns that you may see. The Basilica Cistern, also called the Yerebatan Sarayı or Yerebatan Sarnıcı, is the largest of several hundred ancient cisterns that still lie beneath the city of Istanbul, former Constantinople, Turkey. 1 / 6

2 The cistern, located in the historical peninsula of Istanbul next to the Hagia Sophia, was built during the reign of emperor Justinian I in the 6th century, the age of glory of Eastern Rome, also called the Byzantine Empire. Cisterns that will be visited during this tour is ; * Basilica Cistern *1001 Column Cistern * Cistern Under Nakkas * Cistern Under Eminonu Municipality * Byzantine Aquaduct * Remains Near Pankrator * Other important sites on the walking route Idea : Seeing cisterns that are open to the public and some that are in ruins. You will see Underground Cistern (Yerebatan Sarayi), Binbirdirek (1001 Stones ), a few newly restorated cisterns in istanbul will be seen during the tour and make a small sight seeing with our staff and get general information about istanbul. This tour runs everyday. Tour Starting Time ; The tour is private for you and starting time is flexible.. We recommend 10:00 or 10:30 to make a fresh start. Please remember that our tours are flexible soo if you want to visit any specific place; we can easily add it to the schedule. Includes; Transportation, Guidance. - Tour Price - 2 / 6

3 2 Guest & more = 65 EURO per person. 1 Guest = 75 EURO per person. This is a group tour runs all year long. Pick up and Drop off service. Transportation included. Professional English speaking guide. Entrance fees mentioned by the itinerary. Services charges and local taxes. For more info please send us an . {loadposition user99} CISTERNS OF ISTANBUL TOUR PHOTOS 3 / 6

4 Cisterns Tour Article 1001 Direk Cistern exists under a small public square upper side of Justice Palace in Sultanahmet. According to Byzantium resources, The Binbirdirek Cistern was constructed in the fourth century as the second biggest water reservoir in Istanbul after Bazalika Cistern (Yerebatan Palace). These resources say that when 1. Constantinus settled the city, he forced to migrate some of his senates from Rome to here. One of them was Philoxenus Palace, and he has built this Cistern in the aim of providing the necessary water to this palace which was built as a neighbour of hippodrome. As Patria Konstantinopoleos, one of the sources giving information about the topography of the city of Byzantium period, Philoxenus Palace was near to Lausus Palace and was neighbour to Constantinus forum. There is no doubt that this forum is in Çemberlitaş. It s known that Lausus Palace is also at the same surrounding, so Binbirdirek Cistern is belong to Philoxenus Palace, or most probably to Lausus Palace. It is estimated that when the Turkish Period beginned, there was no water in the Cistern. German traveller R. Lubenau who has come to İstanbul in the 16th century, notifies that workers were processing yarn of silk in the cistern. However, there are somebody written that there was water in the cistern in the 18th century. It s known that in Ottoman period, some big mansions were built on top of the cistern. One of them was Fazlı Paşa who has built a magnificent palace 4 / 6

5 and put 1.Ahmet up in it. The Palace was burnt in 1960 Ayazmakapı Fire, afterwards another wooden mansion was built instead of it; that mansion which was also used as a financial office, was burnt in Hocapaşa fire. After these mansions, Binbirdirek Cistern stayed with an empty area upper side; however it was used as a warehouse of neighbourhood bazaar that was settled upper side public place. According to what R.Ekrem Koçu wrote, in Tayyarzade titled folk tale which had been, firstly, published in , a happening is narrated which was during the imperial of IV.Murad ( ) in the 17th century. This tale is concerned as a meddah story (traditional story teller), belonging to the eighteenth century. In this tale, it is hold how Fazlı Paşa s overage daughter Gevherli Hanım and one of her beautiful and young female slave had attracted rich people, captured them in this cistern, and how they killed them after getting their possessions. Though, this paged tale s accuracy is not certain. Since there was no water inside of the Binbirdirek Cistern, it was used by the silk and yarn producers as an atelier in the seventeenth century. Moreover, the gravure drawn by Thomas Allom in 1840s that shows the daily life of the workers, proves the fact. After the mansion on the cistern was destroyed, several passages were opened by drilling some of the vaults in the aim of letting some light and air into the cistern. For the first time, the plan of Binbirdirek Cistern was published by the famous Austrian architect Fiseher von Erlach ( ), which was based on the drawings he has gotten from Swedish engineer Cornelius Ioos.The Binbirdirek Cistern is a massive reservoir that is surrounded with a thick wall all around. Inside the cistern there were 224 columns (16 rows x14 columns) with the dimensions of 64m, 56m, 40m. Today, you can see only 212 of them exist. The gap between the two columns is 3.75m and the columns are connected to each other with arches which carry the transversal vaults. The columns are formed by overlapping two different bodies of pillars and between these two parts, an overflowing wheel was placed. On the body of the columns, there are pyramid shaped headings -which were not ornamented- show that these pillars were constructed for this cistern specially, instead of being brought from somewhere else. The arches are connected to each other with wooden stretchers which were on the headings. Today, it is only possible to see the holes of these stretchers. The name of the Turkish period of the cistern maybe would come from a word binbir which means abundance, or as a claim of somebody maybe the name would come from the word bindir because the body of the columns exists one on the top of the other. The lower parts of the columns have buried nearly 5m. into the ground. Actually, completely height of the supports are 12,50m. The vaults, at the corner of the left side of todays entrance of the cistern, were 5 / 6

6 demolished and so 18 sections had filled that were here. It attracts attention that too many Greek letters have performed on the body of the columns. It s known that these are the signs of the stoneworkers who performed the columns and worked by building the cistern. 6 / 6