The Columns of Constantinople Along the Old Mese

Start the route in Cerrahpaşa, on Haseki Kadın Sokağı, at this great mass of stone rising between the houses. It is the base of what was once one of the city's greatest monuments. The Column of Arcadius was begun after 401 to celebrate Emperor Arcadius's victory over the Gothic rebels led by Gainas. Arcadius died in 408, so the column was only completed in 421 under his successor Theodosius II. It stood in the middle of the Forum of Arcadius on the city's seventh hill, the place called Xerolophos.

Like its models in Rome, the shaft was wrapped in spiralling bands of relief. Turkish Wikipedia writes that they told, in order, of the army's departure, the clashes with the Goths, a naval battle and the final victory on land. The column was hollow, with a spiral staircase leading to the top, where a bronze statue of the emperor stood; the statue fell in 740. Sources give different heights: Turkish Wikipedia mentions 46-50 metres, English Wikipedia about 32 metres.

The column itself was pulled down in the early 18th century; Turkish Wikipedia gives 1711 and cites irreparable damage and the danger of collapse, while English Wikipedia mentions the earthquake of 1719. What remains today is the base and lower section, about 11 metres high. We know what the lost reliefs looked like from detailed drawings made in 1574-1575 in the Freshfield Album, attributed to the Flemish artist Lambert de Vos. Look at the base, also known locally as Avrat Taşı, from the street; it stands among homes, so keep quiet and stay out of private property. The sheer size of this block is a good way to picture the true scale of the standing columns you will see later.

Source: Wikipedia.

Walk north-east from Cerrahpaşa towards Fatih and this time you meet a column still standing in full. Turkish Wikipedia describes its location as the square where the southern end of Kıztaşı Caddesi opens, on the way north-west from Saraçhanebaşı along Macar Kardeşler Caddesi, before you reach the Fatih Mosque. The monument that gave the neighbourhood its name is the Column of Marcian. According to English Wikipedia, it was erected between 450 and 452 by the city prefect Tatianus in honour of Emperor Marcian (450-457).

The shaft, about 17 metres high, is of reddish-grey Egyptian granite, and the four-sided base is faced with white marble slabs. Look closely at the base. One face carries a Latin dedication which says, roughly, that the prefect Tatianus dedicated this statue of Marcian and its base. The letters were once filled with bronze. Another face shows winged figures holding a globe, which Turkish Wikipedia identifies as Nike, goddess of victory. The column's popular name comes from these figures: once the emperor's statue was lost, the winged figures on the base became the monument's most striking feature, and it came to be called Kıztaşı, the maiden's stone.

Look up. At the top sits a Corinthian capital with eagles at its corners; Marcian's statue once stood on it. Compared with the Column of Arcadius, whose base you saw at the start, this column is modest, but it is one of only two columns on the route you can see whole, from capital to base; the other awaits you at the end. Walk around it to see all four faces. From here, walk twenty to twenty-five minutes via Şehzadebaşı, or take a bus, to reach the Forum of Theodosius at Beyazıt.

Source: Wikipedia.

Along Ordu Caddesi, south of Beyazıt Square and right beside the tram line, you see huge marble fragments laid out on the ground. They are what remains of the triumphal arch of the Forum of Theodosius, one of the largest squares of Constantinople. Under Constantine the forum was called the Forum Tauri, the Forum of the Bull; in 393 Emperor Theodosius I rebuilt it on the model of Trajan's Forum in Rome, as a square ringed by public buildings. The Mese passed right through here and split in two a little further west.

On the west side of the forum stood a triumphal arch of Proconnesian marble with three passages, the central one larger than those at the sides. According to English Wikipedia, its piers were made of four columns each, carved to look like the club of Hercules. Look closely at the shafts lying on the ground and you can still make out their knotted surfaces. Statues of Theodosius and his sons Arcadius and Honorius once stood on top of the arch. The fragments came to light between 1948 and 1961, when Ordu Caddesi and Beyazıt Square were redeveloped.

In the middle of the forum stood a triumphal column of Theodosius too. It was decorated with reliefs of the emperor's victories over the barbarians and had a spiral staircase inside leading to the top. According to English Wikipedia, it stood until the end of the 15th century. According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, carved pieces of its shaft were used as building stone in the foundations of the Bayezid II bath across the street; some are still there and a few are in the Istanbul Archaeology Museums. The bath, now a museum, is directly opposite. From here, follow Divanyolu east along the line of the old Mese to Çemberlitaş.

Source: TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi; Wikipedia.

Rising beside the Çemberlitaş tram stop on Divanyolu, this dark column witnessed the founding of Constantinople itself. Emperor Constantine I set it up in the middle of the forum that bore his name, and it was dedicated on 11 May 330. The Forum of Constantine was an oval square laid out outside the city of the time, and according to the Anadolu Agency the column is the only structure of the forum to survive.

The shaft is made of drums of Egyptian porphyry set on a white marble base. Sources give the original number of drums as anything from seven to eleven; look closely at the laurel-patterned rings between them. The column now stands 34.8 metres above the ground; with its statue it is thought to have been nearly 50 metres tall. At the top stood a statue of Constantine wearing a radiate crown and holding a spear and orb. A violent storm in 1106 brought down the statue and the three uppermost drums; in the 12th century an emperor of the Komnenos dynasty had the column repaired and a cross set on top.

Both of its popular names come from later centuries. In the Ottoman period, iron hoops wrapped around the shaft against cracking gave it the name Çemberlitaş, the hooped stone, and after the fire of 1779 blackened the stone it was also known in Western languages as the Burnt Column. The base is now encased in masonry added in the Ottoman period, and modern restoration has continued on and off since 1955. Right at its foot stands the Çemberlitaş bath of 1584; this pairing of a Byzantine forum monument with an Ottoman public bath shows the layers of Divanyolu at a glance. From here, walk along Divanyolu to Sultanahmet Square.

Source: Fatih Kaymakamlığı; Anadolu Ajansı; Wikipedia.

At the end of Divanyolu you come out onto Sultanahmet Square, beneath which lies the Hippodrome of Constantinople. The first hippodrome was built by Septimius Severus in 203, and Constantine substantially renewed it around 324. According to Wikipedia, the U-shaped arena, about 450 metres long and 130 metres wide, held some 100,000 spectators. The dividing barrier down its centre was crowded with monuments; three of them still stand in place, and they are the oldest objects on this route.

Start with the Obelisk of Theodosius. It was raised by Pharaoh Thutmose III around 1450 BC in front of the great temple at Karnak and is made of red Aswan granite. Constantius II had it taken to Alexandria, and Theodosius I set it up here in 390. Originally about 30 metres tall, it survives as an upper section of nearly 20 metres. Look at each face of the marble pedestal in turn: the raising of the obelisk on the north, kneeling foreigners bringing tribute on the west, chariot racing on the south and musical performances on the east. The Latin inscription on the base says the raising took 30 days, the Greek one 32.

The nearby Serpent Column is older still. It was part of a bronze offering set up at Delphi to mark the Greek victory over the Persians at Plataea in 479 BC; three intertwined serpents once held a golden tripod. Constantine brought it here around 324. The coils bear the names of the 31 Greek cities that took part in the war. The serpent heads were gone by the end of 1700; a fragment of one head is in the Istanbul Archaeology Museums.

The Walled Obelisk at the southern end of the square stands about 32 metres high. In the 10th century Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus restored it and had it clad in gilded bronze plates, which soldiers of the Fourth Crusade stripped off and melted down in 1204.

Source: Wikipedia.

For the last stop, cross from Sultanahmet into Gülhane Park and walk north along its tree-lined paths towards Sarayburnu. Beside the outer gardens of Topkapı Palace, standing alone among tall trees, is a white marble column: the Column of the Goths. The shaft, about 18.5 metres high, is a single piece of Proconnesian marble, topped by a Corinthian capital with acanthus leaves and an eagle.

Read the Latin inscription on the base: FORTUNAE REDUCI OB DEVICTOS GOTHOS, meaning to Fortune who brings us home, for the defeat of the Goths. It tells you the column commemorates a victory over the Goths, but not which one. Sources date it to the 3rd or 4th century and name two candidates, both emperors who defeated the Goths: Claudius II Gothicus (268-270) and Constantine I. English Wikipedia also notes that the inscription may have replaced an earlier dedication. A statue once stood on the capital. The Byzantine historian Nicephorus Gregoras wrote that it was a statue of Byzas, the legendary founder of the city; another view holds that it was Tyche, goddess of fortune.

According to Wikipedia, the Column of the Goths is the oldest surviving Roman monument in the city and may even predate the refounding of Constantinople. That is why the route ends here. Having started from a base in Cerrahpaşa and followed the Mese past the monuments of Marcian, Theodosius and Constantine, you now stand before a column that may be older than all of them and has never been moved. Rest for a while around it, then walk back through the park to the Gülhane tram stop or down to the shore.

Source: Wikipedia.