The Trip That Keeps Growing: 16 April 2025 Istanbul Blog

Today we arrived in Istanbul early in the morning. After arriving at our hotel, the Armada Old City Hotel, we stored our luggage and began our exploration of Istanbul. We purposely planned an easy day as we knew we would be tired after our long flight from Denver.

Istanbul is a very large city encompassing over 994.93 square miles with a population of 18 million people. It is Turkey’s largest city and was once the capital of the Ottoman Empire (known by its former name of Constantinople). It is also a city of cats – everywhere you go there are always cats. While they belong to no one, they belong to everyone. Shop owners and residents alike put out food and water for them and some even put out small box homes so the cats of shelter from the rain and cold. They are well taken care of and the city makes sure they are up to date on their vaccines and many have already been neutered. In fact, as we traveled through Turkey, we found cats (and some dogs) at every location.

One of the many cats in Istanbul

Our first visit was to the Basilica Cistern (or Yerebatan Sarnici as it is known in Istanbul). It was located a short 15-minute walk from our hotel, but what Google maps do not tell you is that it is mostly uphill on very narrow, cobblestone alleyways that you have to share with cars. Istanbul, like Rome, was built on 7 hills. But we made it and soon were at part of town where the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia are located.

The Cistern is located beneath concrete buildings on one of Istanbul’s main streets (Divan Yolu) in the old city. It is one of the last remaining, intact monuments to Istanbul’s Byzantine era. Built in 532 BCE by Justinian I, it is the largest surviving Byzantine cistern of the hundreds of ancient cisterns that lie beneath Istanbul. Its roof, 213’ wide and 469’ long, is supported by 336 columns arranged in 12 rows. The columns are believed to have been taken from other temples and buildings. Located in the center are 2 columns that have a teardrop design and another column, known as the “Weeping Column,” has carvings of a peacock and tree branches created in memory of the hundreds of slaves who died during the construction of the cistern. But perhaps the cistern’s most interesting columns are the 2 in the northwest corner that are supported by blocks that have been carved into Medusa heads with one placed sideways and the other upside-down. The 2 Medusa heads came from another building, but why they are placed as they are remains a mystery. Some historians believe that as Medusa was previously Athena (in Greek mythology) and could turn a man to stone by just looking at them, the head was placed upside down to avoid her eyes. Another theory is that Justinian, a devout Christian, placed the head in a subservient manner to assert his religious beliefs and his religious dominance over the conquered Greek territories and their Pagan beliefs.

The cistern could hold 21,133,760 gallons of water which came from a reservoir near the Black Sea via 12 miles of aqueducts and was used to supply water to the Great Palace of Constantinople and later to the Topkapi Palace after the Ottoman Conquest in 1453.

After the Ottoman conquest, the cistern was closed and forgotten by city authorities. Then in 1545, local residents told Petrus Gullius, a researcher of Byzantine ruins in the city, that they were able to obtain water by lowering buckets from their basement floors. Some were even able to catch fish this way. Gullius then explored the neighborhood and was able to find a house where he could access the cistern. Unfortunately, the city authorities were not impressed by his findings and used the old cistern as a dumping grounds for junk and corpses. Finally in the 18^th century restorations were begun, but it wasn’t until 1985, that it had been cleaned and fully restored with an artificial lake. It opened to the public in 1987. It also became a scene in the James Bond movie, From Russia with Love. Today, once you descend down the flight of steps you can see the cistern in all its grandeur, lighted by red and blue spotlights. And as in the past, you can also see schools of carp swimming in the water.

Basilica Cistern-Rows of Columns

Carved Top of Column

Upside down Medusa Head

Tea Drop Column

Cistern Columns

After leaving the Cistern we walked past the Blue Mosque, admiring the beds of tulips that were part of the Festival of Tulips held during the month of April. Arriving back to our hotel, we could see part of the old city walls in front of the hotel, along with an Arch gate that led out to one of Istanbul’s main highways that traveled along the coastline of the Marmara Sea, a small inland sea. We found that our room was ready early so we took a 4 hour nap before our dinner cruise on the Bosphorus Straits.

Beds of Tulips

Blue Mosque

Arch and Old City Walls by our Hotel

Our pickup time for the dinner cruise was around 7:30, but the bus did not arrive until 8 PM. It was only a short drive to our ship, and we were soon seated at our table. I had paid extra for the wine and beer package and a VIP table. We were seated right next to the dancer’s stage and the wine flowed freely. There was another couple at our table from Morocco – a man on a business trip and his sister who was a Physical Therapist from Morocco. Luckily, they spoke better English than we did Moroccan. The scenery on the show as we cruised past was beautiful, but the reflection from the ships light on the glass windows made for very poor photos. The picture of the Palace was the best I got. The dancers performed several of the traditional Turkish dances. It was a fun evening, although after the dancers performed, the floor was taken over by many younger Turkish people who knew the words to every Turkish rap song that was blasted our way. I think Bill was really glad when we finally docked and could get off the ship!