From Aqueduct to Sebil, the Journey of Water into the City

Start the route where Atatürk Bulvarı passes under the aqueduct, on the Saraçhane side, where you best grasp its length. The Bozdoğan aqueduct was built to carry water across the valley between the Fatih and Beyazıt hills, from one ridge to the other. In the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, Semavi Eyice writes that it is generally attributed to Emperor Valens (364-378) and dated to 368-378, which is why it is known in Western languages as the Aqueduct of Valens. Eyice adds that a forerunner of the line may have existed as early as the reign of Hadrian.

The figures give a sense of scale. According to TDV it reaches 971 metres in length, rises 28-29 metres above the ground and varies in width between 3.40 and 5.65 metres. Wikipedia gives its present length as 921 metres and notes that it was originally about 50 metres longer. Look at the arches: part of the aqueduct has a single tier, while a long stretch has two tiers stacked one above the other; according to TDV the arches from the 18th to the 73rd are double. The walls, where courses of cut stone and brick mix, also carry the marks of centuries of repairs.

The aqueduct kept working after the conquest. Mehmed the Conqueror had it repaired; under Bayezid II and Süleyman the Halkalı waters were connected to the line, and the Kırkçeşme waters in 1556-1557; Mustafa II had the eastern section repaired in 1697-1698. It carried water to the Süleymaniye Mosque and Topkapı Palace until the 20th century. The boulevard was routed under its arches in the plans of the urban planner Henri Prost. Walk up to its piers from the green spaces around it to see the size of the stones up close, and cross the busy boulevard only at pedestrian crossings.

Source: TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi; Wikipedia.

Turn off Divanyolu at Çemberlitaş into Piyer Loti Caddesi and you go down into this cistern through a modern entrance building. It has no inscription; its architectural features place it in the reign of Emperor Theodosius II (408-450), and Wikipedia narrows this to 428-443. In Western languages it is called the Theodosius Cistern; the name Şerefiye comes from the Ottoman neighbourhood where it stood.

At the bottom of the stairs you face 32 columns set out in regular rows. The TDV Encyclopedia of Islam gives its dimensions as 42.5 by 25 metres, with four rows of eight columns dividing the space into five aisles. Look closely at the capitals, all in the Corinthian order and dated to the 5th century. Brick vaults spring from one column to the next. If you have seen the Basilica Cistern, here you find a smaller, tidier version of the same building language, and because you can take in all the columns at a glance, the plan is easy to read.

In the late 19th or early 20th century the Arif Pasha mansion was built over the cistern, later used as municipal offices. Restoration began in 2004, the present entrance building was designed and built between 2013 and 2018, and the cistern has been open as a museum since 2018. According to its official website, with some 1,600 years of history it is one of the oldest water structures in Istanbul. Today it is run by İBB Kültür AŞ and hosts digital shows and concerts among its columns. When the light of a show sweeps across the columns, the capitals and vaults stand out clearly, so use that moment for photographs. Check current hours and the events programme on the official website.

Source: Şerefiye Sarnıcı resmi sitesi; TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi; Wikipedia.

A few minutes' walk from Şerefiye brings you to this large cistern west of the Hippodrome. The TDV Encyclopedia of Islam refers to Binbirdirek as the Cistern of Philoxenus, dates it to the time of Constantine and describes it as the city's second largest covered cistern. Wikipedia credits its construction to a Roman senator named Philoxenus, and the cistern is said to have belonged to his palace.

Its Turkish name, the thousand and one columns, exaggerates, but the forest of columns inside is real. According to TDV, the vaults of the cistern, 64 by 57 metres, rest on 224 columns; the cistern's official website says 212 of them survive. What sets these columns apart from those in other cisterns is that each is made of two shafts stacked one on top of the other with a connecting piece between them. Look into the pit in the middle too, where the floor has been dug down to the original column bases to show the full height of the double shafts. Notice the Greek letters on the columns too; they are the marks of the masons who worked the stone.

Once dry, the cistern found other uses. According to TDV, mansions were built over it in the Ottoman period and silk workers used the cool space inside as a workshop until the late 1800s; a 19th-century engraving by Thomas Allom shows them at work among the columns. According to Wikipedia, after restoration the cistern opened to visitors with exhibition areas and seating. Visiting it right after Şerefiye, compare the two solutions: one small and tidy with single columns, the other broad and deep with its stacked shafts. Check current visiting information on the cistern's official website.

Source: TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi; Binbirdirek Sarnıcı resmi sitesi; Wikipedia.

Walk up from Binbirdirek to the Hippodrome and on to the northern end of the square, and you see this domed fountain carried on eight columns. It commemorates the visit of the German Emperor Wilhelm II to Sultan Abdülhamid II in the autumn of 1898. Its parts were made in Germany, shipped to Istanbul and assembled here. Construction began in 1899; the opening was planned for 1 September 1900, the 25th anniversary of Abdülhamid's accession, but the fountain was finally inaugurated on 27 January 1901, Wilhelm's birthday.

The design is credited to the architect Spitta, the emperor's adviser, and the execution to the architect Schoele, with contributions from the architects Carlitzik and Joseph Antony. The style is neo-Byzantine. First walk around the octagonal body on its raised base, then step under the dome and look up: the inner surface is covered with gold-ground mosaics. Notice the eight medallions, where the signatures of the two rulers alternate: the tughra of Abdülhamid II and Wilhelm's monogram, a W with the numeral II.

Built centuries after the other structures on this route, the fountain is as much a document of the diplomacy of its time as a water building. The Ottoman tradition of the square fountain has become a gift of friendship here, reinterpreted in neo-Byzantine dress by a European workshop. Compare it with the Fountain of Ahmed III, which you will see a few minutes later: one reflects the Ottoman court's own taste, the other a foreign ruler's view of this city. The obelisks of the Hippodrome are visible from the fountain. From here, walk past Ayasofya to the gate of Topkapı Palace.

Source: Wikipedia.

The last stop is this large square fountain between Bab-ı Hümayun, the outer gate of Topkapı Palace, and Ayasofya. According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam it was built in 1141 AH (1728-1729) under Sultan Ahmed III. Wikipedia describes it as the oldest and most impressive example of the new type of free-standing square fountain that appeared in the Tulip Period.

The plan is square, with four facades. A fountain sits at the centre of each face, and at the four corners are semicircular sebils projecting outwards, each with three windows. Look at the windows of the sebils: attendants standing inside handed water and sherbet to passers-by through them. The roof is a lead-covered timber structure with wide eaves, with an octagonal cupola in the middle and four small domes over the sebils, all crowned with gilded bronze finials.

The decoration shows the mixed language of the period when Western art began to seep into Turkish art. Look at the carved flowers on the mirror stones, the marble reliefs brightened with gold leaf and the tiles used here and there. A fourteen-couplet poem by Seyyid Vehbi runs around the facades in talik script; according to TDV, the final couplet on the side facing Ayasofya was written by Ahmed III himself and carved in celi sülüs. According to Wikipedia, the fountain was a meeting and gathering place in Ottoman times.

You have now followed water through the city from aqueduct to square fountain. Walk once around the fountain comparing the four faces and four sebils, then go through the gate behind you into the outer court of Topkapı Palace or walk on to Gülhane Park. Check the palace's current opening hours on its official website.

Source: TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi; Wikipedia.