Category: General

For most of the twentieth century this fifth century Byzantine reservoir sat underneath Istanbul’s municipal offices, intact and inaccessible. The concrete annexes above it were demolished in 2010, a conservation board decision cleared the way, and after years of work the cistern opened to the public as a museum on 24 April 2018. A projection […]

The entrance is at Piyer Loti Caddesi No 2/1, Binbirdirek Mahallesi, Fatih, a few steps off Divan Yolu. The nearest tram stop is Cemberlitas on the T1 line, about 200 metres away on flat ground. Almost everyone arrives on that tram, and almost everyone should. Every route compared How Nearest point Walk to the door […]

This is one of the easier historic sites in Istanbul to do with children. The visit runs 30 to 45 minutes, children aged six and under enter free with family, the projection mapping show lasts under ten minutes, and there is rarely a queue. The chamber is enclosed, dim and cool, which most children find […]

The hour matters more than the month here. The chamber is fifteen metres underground behind two and a half metre walls, so it holds the same cool, dim, humid conditions in January as in August, and the projection mapping show runs on the hour regardless of the weather outside. What changes across the year is […]

There is a lift at the entrance and the walkway inside is level, which makes this one of the more accessible underground sites in Istanbul. What complicates it is that the venue does not publish any of that, the humidity keeps the floor damp, the railings are low, and there is nowhere to leave anything […]

The Theodosius Cistern runs a 360 degree projection mapping show that turns its walls, columns and vaults into a screen, and it is included in the standard entry ticket rather than sold separately. The sequence runs around ten minutes and traces the history of the building and of Istanbul’s water, from the Byzantine period through […]

The evening programme at the Theodosius Cistern runs from 19:45 to roughly 21:15 and puts a live sema ceremony, accompanied by Sufi musicians, on the floor of a 1,600 year old Byzantine water reservoir. Entry to the cistern and the 360 degree projection mapping show are included, and the ceremony itself follows immediately afterwards, performed […]

The best frames in the Theodosius Cistern are waiting in three places, on the central axis where the marble columns line up like a colonnade in a dream, at floor level where the thin sheet of water doubles every column in reflection, and up close to the capitals where the restoration lighting models 1,500 year […]

Beneath the old city of Istanbul lies a second city of water, hundreds of Byzantine cisterns carved and vaulted under the streets, of which three great column halls are open to visitors today, the Basilica Cistern, the Theodosius Cistern and the Binbirdirek Cistern. Walking into one is the strangest sensation the old city offers, one […]

Beneath the streets of old Istanbul lies a hidden city of water. Byzantine engineers dug hundreds of underground cisterns to store the supply that kept Constantinople alive through sieges and dry summers, and a handful survive today as some of the most atmospheric sights in the city. Three are open to visitors, the Basilica Cistern, […]

The Theodosius Cistern is one of the most photogenic spaces in Istanbul, a dim underground hall of 1,500-year-old marble columns washed in a shifting colour light show. The best shots frame a long row of columns down the hall, catch the light as it plays across the stone, or capture the whirling dervish performance among […]

The Theodosius Cistern, known in Turkish as the Şerefiye Sarnıcı, is a restored fifth-century Byzantine water cistern in the heart of old Istanbul, a short walk from Sultanahmet. Underground, rows of tall marble columns hold up brick vaults, washed in a colourful mapping light show, and on most evenings a whirling dervish performance fills the […]