Basilica Cistern

Istanbul Basilica Reservoir is one of the old buildings of the capital of Turkey, which is located in the southwest part of the Hagia Sophia Mosque. The basilica cistern was built by order of Justinian I, the emperor of the Byzantine era who lived between 565-527 AD. This very large underground water reservoir is known as "Yer Batan Cistern" among the people of Turkey, and this name is due to the presence of many marble columns underground. Also, because the place where the cistern is located, there used to be an old basilica or church, so it is also called Basilica Cistern in English. Basilica reservoir is 140 meters long and 70 meters wide. This water tank contains 336 large columns and each of the mentioned columns is 9 meters high. The distance between these columns is 4.80 meters and 12 rows of these columns are located in the Basilica water tank. Each riff has a total of 28 columns. The heads of these columns have different characteristics in some of them. Ninety-eight of these columns have a so-called Corinthian style, and some others remind us of the Dorian style. These reservoirs have brick walls 4.80 meters long. The floor of the basilica cistern is paved with bricks and covered with brick mortar.