One of the magnificent ancient
buildings of İstanbul is the Basilica Cistern located in the southwest of Hagia
Sofia. Constructed for Justinianus I, the Byzantium Emperor (527-565), this big
underground water reservoir is called as “Yerebatan Cistern” among the public
because of the underground marble columns. As there used to be a basilica in
the place of the cistern, it is also called Basilica Cistern.
The cistern is 140 m long, and 70
m wide, and covers a rectangular area as a giant structure. Accessible with
52-step staircase, the Cistern shelters 336 columns, each of which is 9 m high.
Erected at 4.80 m intervals from one another the columns are composed of 12
rows, each has 28 columns. The case-bay of the cistern is conveyed by the
columns through arches. Majority of the columns, most of which is understood to
have been compiled from the ancient structures and sculpted of various kinds of
marbles, is composed of a single part and one of it is composed of two parts.
The head of these columns bear different features in parts. 98 of them reflect
the Corinthian style and part of them reflect the Dorian style. The cistern has
4.80 m high brick walls, and the floor is covered by bricks, and plastered by a
thick layer of brick dust mortar for water tightness. Covering 9,800 sqm area
in total, the cistern has an estimated water storage capacity of 100,000 tons.
Medusa Heads
Except couple of the edged and
grooved columns of the cistern, majority of them are shaped as a cylinder. Two
Medusa heads, which are used as supports under the two columns at the northwest
edge of the cistern, are the great work of art from the Roman period. What
attracts most attention from the visitors is that the structure from which the
Medusa heads have been taken is unknown. The researchers often consider that it
has been brought for being used as supports to the column at the time of
construction of the cistern. However,
this has not prevented myths for the heads of Medusa.
As the legend has it, Medusa is
one of the three Gorgonas that are female monsters in the underground world in
Greek mythology. The snake-head Medusa,
one of the three sisters, has the power of gorgonising the ones that happen to
look at her. Accordingly, Gorgone paintings and sculptures were being used for
protecting big structures and special venues in that time. And putting the head
of medusa in the cistern was for protecting purposes. According to another
rumour, Medusa was a girl who boasted for her black eyes, long hair and
beautiful body. She loved Perseus, the son of Zeus. Athena was also in love
with Perseus and this made Medusa jealous. Therefore, Athena converted medusa's
hairs into snakes. Now, everybody that happened to look at Medusa was
gorgonised. Afterwards, Perseus headed off medusa and beat many enemies by
using her power.
Therefore, the head of Medusa was
engraved on the handles of the swords in Byzantium, and applied onto supports
of the communes in reverse (so that the onlookers would not be gorgonised).
According to another rumour, Medusa
gorgonised herself by looking sideways. For this reason, the sculptor
that made it generated Medusa in three different positions depending on the
reflection angles of the light. The Basilica Cistern has been renovated
repeatedly until today. It was repaired by the Architect Kayserili Mehmet Ağa
during the reign of Ahmad III (M.1723) in the Ottoman Empire, followed by
Sultan Abdulhamid II (1876-1909) in the 19th century. There are 8 columns in
front of the northeast wall towards the middle of the cistern, and they were
exposed to the risk of breaking during the construction works in 1955-1960,
thus each of them were surrounded by a thick layer of cement, so they lost
their previous feature though.
During the rule of Byzantium, the
Basilica Cistern used to meet the water needs and requirements of the great
palace that covered a wide area where the emperor resided, as well as the other
denizens in the region. After conquest of the city of Istanbul in 1453, it was
used for a little while and water was supplied to Topkapı Palace where the sultans
resided.. However, the Ottomans preferred running water over still water, and
established their own water facilities in the city. It is understood that the
cistern was not used thereafter and the western world did not notice it until
the mid XVI century. It was in 1544-1550 when P. Gyllius, a Dutch traveller
that came to Istanbul for making researches on Byzantium ruins was rediscovered
and introduced to the western world. In one of his researches, P. Gyllius,
while roaming around Hagia Sofia, managed to enter inside the cistern with a
torch carrying in his hand by proceeding from the stone steps that went towards
the underground from the backyard of a wooden building surrounded by walls
situated on a large underground cistern as he was told that the householders
there pulled water with buckets down inside the large round holes similar to
well on the ground floor of their houses, and even fished there. P. Gyllius
ranged around the cistern on a rowing boat under harsh conditions, measured it
and identified the columns. The information acquired from his experience was
published in the travel book, and Gyllius had influence on many travelers.
The cistern was subject to
repeated renovations since its establishment. Renovated twice during the reign
of the Ottoman Empire, the cistern was repaired during the rule of Ahmed III
(1723) by the Architect Kayserili Mehmet Ağa for the first time. And the second
repair was made during the rule of Sultan Abdulhamid II (1876-1909). In
republican period, the cistern was cleaned by Istanbul Municipality in 1987,
and was opened to visits for creating a route. Another extensive cleaning was
made in May 1994.