The Basilica Cistern is Istanbul's largest surviving Byzantine cistern and one of its most unique historic sites. Constructed in 532 for Justinian I, this sprawling underground water reservoir ...

Nicknamed Yerebatan Sarayi, or “the Sunken Palace” in Turkish, it is known in English as the Basilica Cistern because of its location on the site of an ancient basilica. Photo: Dan Kitwood ...

Some are well known. Istanbul’s Basilica Cistern, a columned reservoir that dates back to Roman times, has been open to tourists for decades and featured in movies including the James Bond ...

The elaborate reservoir he discovered, today known as the Basilica Cistern, was then already about 1,000 years old. But more surprising still, was that it was portal to even older epochs of ...

Built in the 6th Century for the eastern Roman Empire from older building fragments, The Basilica Cistern used to be a place that stored a huge amount of water. Now it is open to the public to ...