ancient Substructures Hippodrom
Ancient Substructures Hippodrom lies beneath Istanbul’s lively streets, preserving Byzantine-era spaces below the modern city. You find arches, cisterns, basements, and tunnels in the underground remains.
Some spaces may have formed part of a palace complex built under Constantine the Great. Arches rise more than twenty feet above intricate brickwork. Byzantine stonemasons connected the cisterns with arches and designed them to withstand earthquakes. Water storage also helped maintain a stable climate within the city. Archaeologist Ferudun Ozgumus has identified more than three hundred underground sites over two decades.
A former cistern now houses a jewelry workshop, linking ancient masonry with present-day craft. The Hippodrome survives here through the Sphendone, its curved end built for the arena’s chariot races. Cool, damp air and the faint sound of dripping water make the buried architecture especially vivid.
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- Istanbul
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