July 21, 2005

Water System, Istanbul Style

Last Tuesday,my husband and I decided to spend his day off as tourists around the old city of Istanbul. Our agenda was to go to the Yerebatan Cistern which was a water system established Emperor Justinianus in the 6th century. This is one of the famous tourist spot here in Istanbul since it is within what I can call the 'tourist belt area' which comprises the Topkapi Palace, Hagia Sofia, and the whole area of Sultanahmet Square. I was excited to go to this place knowing that this is one of the few surviving cisterns here in Turkey. When I was watching The Amazing Race 7 ( Congrats Uchenna and Joyce!), when the team arrived in Istanbul (Episode 9), they went to two infamous places here. One is the Binbirdireck Cistern and the other was the Rumeli Hisari Fortress. Not knowing and still trying to figure out where the Binbirdireck Cistern is, we opted to go to the Yerebatan Cistern instead.

The Cistern was a very good experience. It was just amazing to see such structure that was built 1500 years ago!We went down and the air was cool. I felt eerie being underground looking at the columns with intricate decors knwoing that this was the MWSS system of the emperor at that time ( how grand!). There is still water inside just enough to have a big pond that now is a house to hundreds of fresh water fish.

Want to see how it looks like? Scroll down... Hopefully, our next stop will be Rumeli Hisari Fortress :)

Posted by duke at 7/21/2005 03:02:00 PM

7 Comments:

Analyse said...: o bat parang sad ka naman dyan sa piktyur mo ineng? but wow, that is a must-see site, it's good that they restore those kinds of heritage..; 7/21/2005 04:12:00 PM
duke said...: sha-- oh yes.. you never run out of places to visit here...

ana-- actually natatakot ako kaya di ako maka smile sa picture! ako pa na claustrophobic.. underground na, madilim pa ang siste! di tuloy makapag emote ang beauty ko! hahahaha; 7/21/2005 04:19:00 PM
Anonymous said...: That masthead looks awesome!

btw: thanks for visiting my blog & for the lovely comment. I'm sure gonna love reading your entries.

So you used to be a HK-nean?; 7/21/2005 07:01:00 PM
Noemi said...: ngi! katakot nga..iba effect, kahit sa picture lang...hehehe in fairness hah,maganda..buti at naalagan at iningatan ang ganyang mga structure para makita ng iba...:); 7/21/2005 08:28:00 PM
Analyse said...: hehe, parang pinilit ka nga lang mag pose hehe..; 7/21/2005 11:17:00 PM
duke said...: knoizki-- it is very nice ,no? yes, I used to be living in the chaotic world of HK! miss the buzz of that city even if it is a pollution haven :)you know what i mean :)

noemi- you bet nakaktakot! and to think they have a cafe inside ha!

sha - sabi ni husband dearie, pose for the picture.. eh di shempre pose pa din ako kahit takot! :)

nao - parang simbahan na walang santo!na may mga isda!; 7/22/2005 05:11:00 PM
Unknown said...: Wooow!!1 A great sultanahmet history.; 4/05/2010 08:27:00 PM

Confessions of an Expat's Wife

July 21, 2005

Water System, Istanbul Style

7 Comments:

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