The Basilica Cistern, also called the Yerebatan Saray or Yerebatan Sarnýcý, is the largest of several hundred ancient cisterns that still lie beneath the city of Constantinople, Turkey.
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This cathedral-sized cistern is an underground chamber of 469 by 213 feet, capable of holding 21,133,764 gallons of water. The large space is broken up by a forest of 336 marble columns each 30 feet high. The bases of two of these columns reuse earlier blocks carved with the head of a Medusa.
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The cistern, located in the historical peninsula of Constantinople, was built by the Greeks during the reign of emperor Justinianus in the 6th century, the age of glory of Eastern Rome, also called the Byzantine Empire. The cistern is surrounded by a firebrick wall with a thickness of 13 feet and coated with a special mortar for insulation against water. The cistern's water was provided from the Belgrade Woods—which lie 12 miles north of the city—via aqueducts built by the emperor Justinianus.
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