Painting of the Basilica Cistern by Robert Walsh.
Touted as the ‘Sunken Garden’ (
Çukurbostan) during Ottoman times, and currently known as the
Karagümrük stadyumu
(or Karagümrük stadium), there is an expansive area in modern-day
Istanbul that has a bit of exalted history attached to it. How so? Well,
as it turns out, the soccer stadium is actually a spatial ‘development’
that aptly demonstrates the advanced degree of Roman engineering
ability. To that end, the site was a full-fledged Eastern Roman
(Byzantine) open-air cistern with impressive dimensions of 244 m (801
ft) length, 85 m (279 ft) width and 14 m (46 ft) depth. Better known as
the Cistern Of Aetius, in its original state, this massive
infrastructural construction could have easily encompassed around four
American football fields – within its 224,000 sq ft area!
