What makes the Basilica Cistern such an important historical site to see when visiting Istanbul? Laying in the cool depths below the city it is a great place to chill out for a little while and cool off in the hot summer months of Istanbul. In all seriousness though, at one time it was a great source of water for the Great Palace and surrounding buildings. Originally Constantine had already built and cistern in the same spot and ended up enlarging it to what it is today. The cistern’s water was provided from the Belgrade Woods—which lie 19km north of the city—via aqueducts built by the emperor Justinian.
Nowadays though, it isn’t something you would want to drink from, mainly because it has been restored three times and used to be a dumping ground for Ottomans ranging from everyday trash to dead bodies.

The day we went to the Cistern it was such a relief to find this wonderfully cool place, and after already seeing a few sites I was very tired. Upon entering though all my tiredness fell from my body and I felt relieved and enchanted. One of the fun things is the brilliant pictures that can be taken of the Cistern due to the strategically placed orange lights facing various columns. It brought back memories of sitting in line for a Disney ride as a kid: feeling the cool air, seeing the ridiculous amount of people, and staring mindlessly at the interesting decorations. This site gave me more peace of a piece of mind. You look out at the space and it is just incredible to think that someone built this with the primitive technology of the day.

When you finally decide that enough is enough don’t forget to inspect the Medusa heads’ placed randomly at the bottom of two pillars. It is rumored that the heads were removed from an antique building of the late Roman period. They aren’t hard to spot, just find the largest crowd of people and camera flashes flying at the wall and you are there. If you get bored with that there are various colorful fish swimming through the waters. Also I noticed as I was leaving that here is a quaint little cafe