Just beside Ayasofya, in Istanbul, you will find a Roman cistern as old as Ayasofya itself.
This extraordinary building, with its massive stone columns and its lofty brick domes, stands at the head of a row of guesthouse forming the narrow “Soğukçeşme” Street between Topkapı Palace walls and St. Sophia.
The Turkish Touring and Automobile Association converted the old houses of “Soğukçeşme” Street into a row of guesthouse, cleaned out the 1600 years old Roman Cistern, which was unfortunately used as a car repair workshop untill recently.
The present floor level reaches to a debt of seven meters but investigations had shown that the six large, massive, single-piece columns descend three meters below this grounded level. The original room has been preserved exactly as it was. The only addition to this cistern is a fire-place in the ancient style. Tis fine Roman Cistern Restaurant simply named “Sarnıç Restaurant” in turkish, which gives the literal description of the building. |
