Basilica Cistern (Yerebatan Sarayi) , museum in istanbul , turkey

Basilica Cistern (Yerebatan Sarayi),,,,

The Basilica Cistern (Turkish: Yerebatan Sarayı - "Sunken Palace", or Yerebatan Sarnıcı - "Sunken Cistern"), is that the largest of many hundred ancient cisterns that lie to a lower place town of city (formerly Constantinople), Turkey. The cistern, settled five hundred feet (150 m) southwest of the Hagia Sophia on the historical solid ground of Sarayburnu, was inbuilt the sixth century throughout the reign of Byzantine Emperor Justinian I.

 

History of  Basilica Cistern ,

 (Yerebatan Sarayi) :

The name of this subterranean structure derives from an oversized public sq. on the primary Hill of metropolis, the Stoa Basilica, below that it had been originally made. Before being regenerate to a cistern, a good Basilica stood in its place, designed between the third and fourth centuries throughout the first Roman Age as an advertisement, legal and creative centre.The basilica was reconstructed by Ilius once a fireplace in 476.
Ancient texts indicated that the basilica contained gardens, enclosed by a colonnade and facing the Hagia Sophia.[consistent with ancient historians, Emperor Constantine designed a structure that was later remodeled and enlarged by Emperor Justinian once the Nika riots of 532, that ruined town.
Historical texts claim that seven,000 slaves were concerned within the construction of the cistern.The enlarged cistern provided a water filtration system for the nice Palace of metropolis and alternative buildings on the primary Hill, and continued to produce water to the Topkapi Palace once the Ottoman conquest in 1453 and into contemporary world.

Medusa column bases :

 

 Located within the northwest corner of the cistern, the bases of 2 columns use blocks engraved with the visage of Medusa. The origin of the 2 heads is unknown, although it's thought that the heads were delivered to the cistern when being far from a building of the late Roman amount. there's no written proof that implies they were used as column pedestals antecedently. Tradition has it that the blocks area unit oriented sideways and inverted so as to negate the ability of the Gorgons' gaze,[citation needed] but it's wide thought that one was placed sideways solely to be the right size to support the column. The means up|the other way up} Medusa was placed that way specifically as a result of she would be a similar height right facet up.[citation needed]

Basilica Cistern (Yerebatan Sarayi) - video: