Turkey Guide
İstanbul
Yerebatan Sarayı
Address: Sultanahmet
Opening time: Daily 9am–6pm
Price: 10YTL
From either Topkapı Palace or the Aya Sofya, it's a quick stroll across the tram tracks to the Yerebatan Sarayı, the "Sunken Palace" – also known as the Basilica Cistern. It's one of several underground cisterns, this one buried under the very core of Sultanahmet and is the first to have been extensively excavated. Although generally crowded, it warrants a prolonged exploration: the entrance is on Caferıya Sok, with the exit on Yerebatan Caddesi, above the largest hall of the cistern.
Probably built by the emperor Constantine in the fourth century, and enlarged by Justinian in the sixth, the cistern was supplied by aqueducts with water from the Belgrade Forest. It in turn supplied the Great Palace and later Topkapı Palace. The cistern fell into disuse after the Ottoman conquest and its existence was only brought to public attention in 1545 by the Frenchman Petrus Gyllius. He had been led to it by local residents, whose houses were built over the cistern and who had sunk wells into it. They even kept boats on the water from which they could fish its depths – Gyllius' interest was first aroused when he found fresh fish being sold in the streets nearby.