The Basilica Cistern was the largest underground water source in Constantinople. Built by Justinian after the Nika riots the cistern served the population of the city for centuries. After the Ottoman conquest knowledge of the cistern seems to have disappeared before being discovered again.
This video is part of a series - 'The History of Byzantium goes to Istanbul.' In 2018 the listeners of the podcast funded a Kickstarter to send me to Istanbul. I documented many of the surviving Byzantine sites and have made videos about them.
I am now able to offer tours to Istanbul (and beyond) for listeners of the podcast. Email me if you'd like to know more (thehistoryofbyzantium at gmail.com).
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For more information about Byzantine Constantinople visit [ Ссылка ]. It's a fantastic website providing breakdowns of the Byzantine buildings that can still be seen today and there you'll find most of the still images and sketches used in these videos.
'The History of Byzantium' is a podcast telling the story of the Roman Empire from 476 AD to 1453. The podcast home page is here [ Ссылка ] and you can support the show at [ Ссылка ]
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