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Description
Water, as a means of supporting the sustenance of city's lives, had been the most important problem of man ever since the primitive era until civilisation reached a high level of modern city planning developments.

In the Historical ages the Romans were the first group of people to pay attention to the water problem. They used to find water from nearby sources and brought it, by means of arches and canals, to the plants called CISTERN.

The biggest and the most magnificent of all the art products of Ýstanbul is, undoubtly, the YEREBATAN CISTERN, the Great Basilica Cistern.
One of Ýstanbul's historical art product is the Basilica Cistern which is situated at a short distance further southwest of Ayasofya. This underground cistern, which was named idiomatically by the local people as "Yerebatan Palace" because of the columns that arise from its water and create an image of a place, was constructed by Emperor Justinianus The First (527-567 A.D). It is thought that in the late years of the Roman Empire, around the 3rd and 4th Century, at the place where the cistern is found today, there existed a great Basilica which was used for trade, legal, scientific and artistic activities. In 476 A.D. , a big fire caught the cistern resulting into a complete destruction of the cistern following which Illius reconstructed it and then there was a second fire set by the Nika rebels which caught the cistern again. The old sources state that at this place there was bronze statue of King Solomon which was facing and gazing Ayasofya with admiration for he was thinking that Ayasofya was much more beautiful than his own art products; as it is well known that the temple that King Solomon constructed in Israel was considered to be the most magnificent until Ayasofya was built. It is said that later, Emperor Basilius demolished this famous statue and replaced it with his own statue.

It is suggested that the great cistern which was caught by fire was constructed in the year 542 A.D. by Emperor Justinianus by the work of 7000 slaves. The cistern was named Basilica because of the Illius Basilica which was found near it. The water of the cistern comes from Belgrat Forest's water distribution point called Eðrikapý, 19 km. Away from the city centre, by means of VALENS (Bozdoðan); a 971 m long aqueduct constructed in 368 A.D. by Emperor Valens and MOÐLOVA; another aqueduct which is 115.45 m. long and was constructed by Emperor Justinianus. The cistern's plan was worked out in 100 years by German submariners. According to their findings the cistern is a vast building of 140 m. long and 70 m. wide. In this cistern, which can be reached after walking down 52 steps on stone stairs, there are 336 columns each 9 m. high spaced at a distance of 4.8 m. apart. There are 12 lines of columns each line comprising of 28 columns. The columns erected in the water in this way resemble a vast forest and for that reason they happen to be the centre of attraction to the visitors as soon as they enter the cistern. The weight of the entire cistern's ceiling is adequately distributed to the columns through round arches. These columns are considered to have been collected from ancient buildings. They Are made of various types of marble and granite stones and they are mostly of one piece each although some of them are of two pieces placed on top of each other. The heads of these columns have different specialities 98 of them depict the Corint style while as the rest depict the Dor style.

The cistern's 4.80 m. wide brick covered wall and its brick-covered base have been made waterproof by being plastered in a special way. The cistern with its area of 9800 m2. has a water capacity of 100.000 tonnes. Most of the columns in the cistern are cylindrical in shape and they are stylised in many different ways. The column stylised in a peacock eye, a bent branch of a tree and tear drop figure on it is the one that attracts people's attention very much. This column resembles the one called "Forum Tauri", found in the present day Beyazýt Square and which is mentioned in the lyrics about the Great Theodosiusus's 4th Century victory (379-395 A.D). The legend says that this column was stylised in tear drop so as to make it a memory of the hundreds of slaves who died during the construction of the cistern. After passing the middle of the cistern one is able to see a shapeless wall of about 40 m. long and 30 m. wide which was erected there in the late centuries so as to carry the weight of the cistern. A total of 40 columns are out of sight now because they are behind this wall. Out of these hidden columns, 9 are in the widest side and 2 are in the narrowest side of the cistern.

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Description
Water, as a means of supporting the sustenance of city's lives, had been the most important problem of man ever since the primitive era until civilisation reached a high level of modern city planning developments.

In the Historical ages the Romans were the first group of people to pay attention to the water problem. They used to find water from nearby sources and brought it, by means of arches and canals, to the plants called CISTERN.

The biggest and the most magnificent of all the art products of Ýstanbul is, undoubtly, the YEREBATAN CISTERN, the Great Basilica Cistern.
One of Ýstanbul's historical art product is the Basilica Cistern which is situated at a short distance further southwest of Ayasofya. This underground cistern, which was named idiomatically by the local people as "Yerebatan Palace" because of the columns that arise from its water and create an image of a place, was constructed by Emperor Justinianus The First (527-567 A.D). It is thought that in the late years of the Roman Empire, around the 3rd and 4th Century, at the place where the cistern is found today, there existed a great Basilica which was used for trade, legal, scientific and artistic activities. In 476 A.D. , a big fire caught the cistern resulting into a complete destruction of the cistern following which Illius reconstructed it and then there was a second fire set by the Nika rebels which caught the cistern again. The old sources state that at this place there was bronze statue of King Solomon which was facing and gazing Ayasofya with admiration for he was thinking that Ayasofya was much more beautiful than his own art products; as it is well known that the temple that King Solomon constructed in Israel was considered to be the most magnificent until Ayasofya was built. It is said that later, Emperor Basilius demolished this famous statue and replaced it with his own statue.

It is suggested that the great cistern which was caught by fire was constructed in the year 542 A.D. by Emperor Justinianus by the work of 7000 slaves. The cistern was named Basilica because of the Illius Basilica which was found near it. The water of the cistern comes from Belgrat Forest's water distribution point called Eðrikapý, 19 km. Away from the city centre, by means of VALENS (Bozdoðan); a 971 m long aqueduct constructed in 368 A.D. by Emperor Valens and MOÐLOVA; another aqueduct which is 115.45 m. long and was constructed by Emperor Justinianus. The cistern's plan was worked out in 100 years by German submariners. According to their findings the cistern is a vast building of 140 m. long and 70 m. wide. In this cistern, which can be reached after walking down 52 steps on stone stairs, there are 336 columns each 9 m. high spaced at a distance of 4.8 m. apart. There are 12 lines of columns each line comprising of 28 columns. The columns erected in the water in this way resemble a vast forest and for that reason they happen to be the centre of attraction to the visitors as soon as they enter the cistern. The weight of the entire cistern's ceiling is adequately distributed to the columns through round arches. These columns are considered to have been collected from ancient buildings. They Are made of various types of marble and granite stones and they are mostly of one piece each although some of them are of two pieces placed on top of each other. The heads of these columns have different specialities 98 of them depict the Corint style while as the rest depict the Dor style.

The cistern's 4.80 m. wide brick covered wall and its brick-covered base have been made waterproof by being plastered in a special way. The cistern with its area of 9800 m2. has a water capacity of 100.000 tonnes. Most of the columns in the cistern are cylindrical in shape and they are stylised in many different ways. The column stylised in a peacock eye, a bent branch of a tree and tear drop figure on it is the one that attracts people's attention very much. This column resembles the one called "Forum Tauri", found in the present day Beyazýt Square and which is mentioned in the lyrics about the Great Theodosiusus's 4th Century victory (379-395 A.D). The legend says that this column was stylised in tear drop so as to make it a memory of the hundreds of slaves who died during the construction of the cistern. After passing the middle of the cistern one is able to see a shapeless wall of about 40 m. long and 30 m. wide which was erected there in the late centuries so as to carry the weight of the cistern. A total of 40 columns are out of sight now because they are behind this wall. Out of these hidden columns, 9 are in the widest side and 2 are in the narrowest side of the cistern.

Edit: Added title