The Yerebatan sarnıcı has a website where it calls itself the Basilica Cistern. It is situated close to the Haghia Sophia entrance, across the street and the tramway lines. It is a huge cistern, from the Wikipedia I gathered it has 143 x 65 meters and 336 columns. There are three spots that are particularly popular, two Medusa heads supporting columns (one of them is a spot where people will throw coins in, hoping to return someday), another is a column with a peacock feather motive (compare the columns lying along the road near the Laleli tramway stop) where someone had the bright idea of suggesting that putting your finger (or was it a thumb, I didn’t try) in a little hole and turning your hand will make a wish come true. As a result tourists are cuing to perform this silly ceremony.
I forgot to thank you for these beautiful pictures and hardwork, very well done
goksel
07-Mar-2012 08:01
This is my favorite place in İstanbul. I attended İstanbul University which is located in Beyazit and very close to the cistern. It was my habit and pleasure to go to the cistern, relax - cool down in summer days and have my lunch at Sultanahmet köftecisi (meatballs unique to Istanbul). I know that there are some private cisterns found hidden under some houses and carpet shops.One of them is very beautiful and renovated by the owners of the carpet shop- Nakkas Halı Sarayı - Actually archeologists all agree that there are other cities-cultures built on top of each other, which lie unexplored under İstanbul.