10. Pillars, Heads & Tails
The builders of the Basilica system have never intended to create a impressive sightseeing place. The underground system provided the former Byzantine empire with water and was constructed out of pillars from long forgotten temples and other buildings.
It’s to see because they all look different, one of them is in teardrop shape and two are standing on Medusa’s heads, which is turned horizontal at one and upside down at another. The reason why they did it this way and where the heads are from is still a puzzle to be solved. In the Byzantine period the water level was probably reaching the ceiling letting it only be possible for certain people to go over it by boat.
In the Ottoman era the place had a more barbaric destination as it was abused for torturing soldiers and storing their corpses. Nowadays it’s one of the biggest (probably biggest) wishing-wells in the world with coins everywhere you look and fish swimming over it.
The reflection of it all in the water creates a mysterious extra dimension to it best seen from the bridge looking through the middle. JR tried to make a good photograph of it but you have to rent the whole system for your own doing that and you need a tripod for sure. The busloads of people entering in groups spoiled it about every time when they crossed the bridge we were standing on. And for this time of the year it isn’t even the season for tourism.
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Basilica cistern
Istanbul