Binbirdirek Sarnıcı

A Byzantine cistern west of the Hippodrome, dated to the time of Constantine and the city's second largest covered cistern; the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam calls it the Cistern of Philoxenus. Its vaults, covering 64 by 57 metres, rest on 224 columns, each made of two shafts stacked one on the other; according to its official website 212 columns survive. In the Ottoman period mansions were built over it and silk workers used the space as a workshop until the late 1800s. After restoration it opened to visitors with exhibition areas.