The Sunken Palace: Basilica Cistern

Now if you have watched Dan Brown’s Inferno, the movie with Tom Hanks, and have been a diligent tourist in Istanbul, you’d recognize the underground chapel I visited one-afternoon last summer.

The Basilica Cistern is located off the very busy touristic attractions of Hagia Sophia and Sultanahmet. When I decided to go visit, just by looking at the address I thought this must be a hidden gem because I never came across it while visiting the area. I was kind of right because it was hidden and it is indeed a gem, a rather unpolished one at that too. I took a friend along and decided to make a day of it.

On we went, guided by our friendly and accurate navigation app and ventured into Istanbul’s oldest neighborhoods; the land of the Sultans, Princes and wealth, Old Constantinople. When we arrived, I had to go around the building several times to make sure it’s the correct one. It was very understated.

The entrance was essentially what you’d think is a regular ground floor Turkish building made with white bricks and a red rood top. I didn’t get it, where was the building? Okay, so standing in the very short line (and short lines are not a good sign in my book), we moved forward and I came to realize that the “building” was underground! I don’t know why the name “Sunken Palace” in my head, only resonated with a palace drowning in water, not an underground one! Alright then, this could be interesting.

Paying 20 TL each, we moved down the stone steps of what seemed like an ancient staircase. The light started to escape the stairs and we’re now moving along, guided by the sounds of feet of the people in front. This was getting a little uncomfortable and at one point I had to take out my phone to light the steps. Slowly, an orange dim light started to fill the hallway that eventually led to a humongous underground chamber, and I say chamber but I actually mean hall, as in a palace indeed! I was struck by how big and magnificently hidden this existence was because it was an existence, it had a presence. The energy emanating from it was -wait for it- calming!

Orange and degrees of black were the predominant colors only because it was very dark inside and all the lights were a dim orange. These spot-lights lit hundreds and hundreds of extremely tall and wide pillars that stood in water. A wooden deck maneuvered and guided visitors to the end of the hall. It was spectacular to say the least, mostly because all this grandness was shrouded in silence despite the hundreds of visitors we discovered downstairs and the thousands visiting the mosques above. It was like being transformed into a magical world from beyond. It was like going back in the time of the crusades and closing the door of the “now” behind you.

To put things into perspective, there are 336 columns in The Sunken Palace, each 9 meters in height and made of one or two pieces of marble. These columns are rooted in water and rise up to hold the ceiling by arches of brick. It has the ability to store 100,000 tons of water and was used specifically for that purpose when it was built. Constructed by a Byzantine Emperor before the Ottomans came along, this palace was also a Basilica in olden days, and hence the origins of its name.

Most of the columns that you see are uniform and cylindrical in structure except for a few interesting ones. As you walk down the wooden platform towards the south end of the hall, brightly lit signs tell you about the crying column. Made of what looks like carved wood but actually marble, touch the column and you feel the water dripping down its long height. It is said to have been built to commemorate the hundreds of slaves who died while constructing the Basilica Cistern.

Walk a few meters more and you see the inverted heads of the Medusa at the bottom of two separate columns. I have no idea why they’re there and there was no conclusive explanation why they were placed upside down like that.

Did I mention there was very subtle soft music playing from speakers in the hall? Can I just say that it totally added to the ambiance and mystic of the place? Balance that out with the scene at the corner of the entrance where costumed (Ottoman kaftans of course) photos were being taken and you’ve got the full Constantinople vibe coming through.

When I took that visit, there were some restorations taking place and so the water level was quite shallow but I am told that when in full activity, the canals underneath our feet, would be filled with fishes. Another visit in winter is in the works, because the Basilica Cistern is a place I can definitely visit again.