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Dick Osseman | profile | all galleries >> Istanbul >> Cisterns - Sarnıçlar >> Zeyrek Cisterns tree view | thumbnails | slideshow | map

Yerebatan sarnıcı, Basilica Cistern | Sultan Sarnıcı, Sultan’s cistern | Binbirderek or 1001 Column Cistern | Zeyrek Cisterns | Mocius Cistern | Aspar cistern

Zeyrek Cisterns

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Istanbul start page, or go to Start page for other Turkish cities

The Zeyrek or Pantokrator Cisterns are supposed to have been built in the 12th century, along with the Monastery, in the time of Ioannes Komnenos. There are many cisterns belonging to the monastery. The largest of them has a wall along the main road, a line of niches, and, it is stated in the notice I quote from, partly above ground. This implies the cistern may be deeper than the part we see. Is was used into the 18th century, then dried up for reasons unknown. It is currently 18 meters wide, 50 meters long. The southern side is ruined, it is unclear how much further it stretched, but it was probably some 3-4 meters longer.
The notice rambles a bit “Similar galleries are supposed to be existingexist (sic) on the now ruined south side which is now ruined.” I mention this because great care has obviously been taken to place pyramidal structures with this kind of information at many monuments, I found almost all of them somewhere have bad English, spelling mistakes, or just gibberish. Near the Yeni a huge banner mentions restoration of “Royal cementeries”. A shame for a big city.

Other cisterns nearby are described, at least two smaller ones.
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