The Basilica Cistern (Yerebatan)

Istanbul · Turkiet · Historic building

Two Medusa heads carry columns down in the water — turned upside down and on its side, so no gaze has time to turn to stone.

Three hundred and thirty-six columns stand in water beneath Sultanahmet, and at the far end of the dark two of them rest on heads of Medusa. One lies upside down, the other on its side. The explanation the guides give is not structural but apotropaic: the heads were turned so that nobody who meets their gaze can be petrified. Another legend has Medusa as a girl who boasted of her hair until Athena, in love with the same man, turned her curls to snakes and laid the curse on her eyes. A third insists the heads were set here as a talisman, placed to guard the city's water against anything that might poison it. Whichever you believe, they are still looking, from the wrong angle, up out of the water. Nobody knows where the heads were taken from.

FAQ

Where is The Basilica Cistern (Yerebatan) located?

The Basilica Cistern (Yerebatan) is in Istanbul, Turkiet.

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