Istanbul Things to Do Tips by hadrian

The Church of Divine Wisdom it is counted among the biggest architectonic achievements of the world. For many centuries it was the largest church in the world. Built by Constantine the Great in 360 AD, it was destroyed in a fire in 404 AD and later during the Nika revolt. It was rebuilt by Justinian who reopened it in 537 AD and entered the church with the words: " Solomon, I have surpassed you! ".
(it is open Tuesday-Sunday, 9.15-16.30, entrance fee around 10$ )

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Address: Aya Sofya Meydani
Directions: Sultanahmet Square

It is changed into a mosque short after the Ottoman conquest from 1453.
The outside is simple, even monotonously without ornamental fa?ades. But the internal vastness breaks your breath, the grandeur and majestic of the inner space overwhelms you and for an instant you get its symbolic sense, image of the cosmos, its dome being the sky and the central nave being the earth.
Some of the surviving golden mosaics are a living proof of the refinement that characterized the Byzantine capital city during the VIth century.
It was used as a church for 916 years and as a mosque for 481 year. In 1934, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, turn it into a museum, open to visitors.
(it is open Tuesday-Sunday, 9.15-16.30, entrance fee around 10$ )

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Address: Aya Sofya Meydani
Directions: Sultanahmet Square

It is a vast underground cistern, a beautiful example of the Byzantine engineering. It was build in 532 AD by Justinian to fulfill the bigger and bigger need of water for the Imperial Palace. The Ottoman conquerors discovered it 100 years after they conquered the city when they found out that the citizen supplied themselves with water through holes made in the cellars of their houses.
(it is open daily, 9.00-17.00, between October-April, 8.30-16.00, entrance fee around 8$)

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Address: 13 Yerebatan Caddesi
Directions: from Aya Sofya Meydani, cross toward the tramline

The cistern is 70m wide and 140m long and has 336 columns, most of them topped with Byzantine Corinthian capitals. Two of them representing a point of attraction because, a Medusa head were used as a base, which probably were part of an altar dedicated to water nymphs. The place at the base of the columns suggests that the constructors were Christians, who did not want to revere a God of a pagan period.
(it is open daily, 9.00-17.00, between October-April, 8.30-16.00, entrance fee around 8$)

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Address: 13 Yerebatan Caddesi
Directions: from Aya Sofya Meydani, cross toward the tramline

Is part of an elaborated system for the water supplying for palaces and public fountains, the structure was 1000m length from out of remained 625m. It was built at the end of the IVth century by the emperor Valens. The aqueduct was functional until the end of the XIXth century !!! when it was replaced with a modern network of water distribution.
( it is placed in the area called Sarachane where Ataturk Boulevard crosses the aqueduct )

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From the opulent construction that at its apogee had no equal in Europe, it remained almost nothing, unfortunately. A part of the galleries of the Golden Hall was discovered in the 30s, nowadays, the Mosaics’ Museum.
( follow the street in front of the Blue Mosque called Mimar Mehmet Aga toward Marmara Sea having the mosque on your right side, pass on a kind of a small bazaar on the right side and you will see it. It is open from Tuesday till Sunday, 9.00-16.00, entrance fee it was around 2.000.000 TL in May 2003)

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Address: Arasta Carsisi
Directions: behind right side of the Blue Mosque

How could a construction which stretches out 40 ha and has included: 8 interior courts, 7 vestibules, 10 imperial apartments, 5 reception halls and audience halls, 4 churches, 9 chapels, 9 oratorios, 3 dinning halls, a library, a weapon hall, a trophy hall, 2 roman baths, one manege, 3 terraces, 8 private pavilions, 6 jails have looked like?
In the audience hall, where the ambassadors and the illustrious guests were received, the imperial throne was shadowed by a silver tree with golden leafs and silver and gold birds on its branches and two massive gold lions were sitting at the base of the throne. Here, ingenious mechanisms turn the birds singing and the lions bellowing while the imperial throne was lifted to the ceiling.

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Unfortunately there is nothing left from the giant stadium ( 117m wide and 480m long with a capacity of 100.000 spectators ) built by Emperor Septimus Sever in the IIIrd century having as model, Circus Maximus from Rome. The spine, the central line, was decorated with obelisks and columns brought from Greece and Egypt. What survived is the Egyptian Obelisk ( Dikilitas ) having 25m, erected in the name of the Pharaoh Thutmosis the Third in front of the temple of Amon-Ra in Karnak in 15th century BC and brought from Luxor by Theodosius the First in 390 AD. The obelisk is placed on a base showing Theodosius and his family in kathisma, the imperial grandstand. Nearby there is The Snake’s Column ( Yilanli Sutun ) brought from Apollo’s temple from Delphi ( it was a huge bronze incense burner ). A Polish nobleman destroyed the heads of the snakes in the XVIIIth century. One of the heads can be found at the Archaeological Museum in Istanbul. There, the column that had on the top four bronze horses does not exist anymore; it was robed during the 4th crusade and can be found now in Venice, in San Marco square. ( Wouldn’t it be nice if Italians would return them to the place where they have once belonged )

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Address: Atmeydani Sok
Directions: Sultanahmet Area

It is one of the hidden secrets of Istanbul.
Is the church where for over 100 year after the Ottoman conquer, was the Orthodox Patriarchy. At the end of the XVIth century, the sultan Murad the Third transformed it into a mosque in order to celebrate the victory upon Georgia and Azerbaidzhan.
(Unfortunately it was not open, I think would it be better to go there during the praying hours in order to try to go inside. It is located in the area called Fener, unfortunately you have to enter a labyrinth of some small streets, but you will have the opportunity to face the real life of the locals, do not get afraid they are extremely friendly, but I would not go there alone. Try to rich Fethye Caddesi and having the Golden Horn behind you, take right, exactly where Manyasizade Caddesi ends and starts Fethye Caddesi )

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Directions: Fener

Laying along the Golden Horn, this church was cast in metal in Vienna in 1871 and shipped to Golden Horn where was assembled.
( it is located on Mursel Pasa Caddesi in the area called Balat, unfortunately it was closed when I was there at noon, even if in my travel guide book it is written that it is open daily between 9.00-16.00 )

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Address: Mursel Pasa Caddesi
Directions: Balat