The Serpent Column

Istanbul · Turkiet · Stone formation

While the three serpent heads remained, the city was spared snakes — then they were struck off, and two are missing to this day.

In the middle of the old hippodrome stands a twisted bronze column of three serpents coiling upward in twenty-nine turns. It was cast from Greek spoils after Plataea in 479 BC and brought here by Constantine. Evliya Çelebi counted it among the city's talismanic columns: as long as the three serpent heads stayed in place, nothing that crawled could enter Constantinople. An engraving from 1699 still shows the heads attached. During the 18th century two of them were broken off and vanished without trace; the third surfaced in an excavation beside Hagia Sophia in 1848 and now sits behind glass in the archaeological museum. The talisman has been broken ever since, and the column stands headless in its pit. The bronze is green-black with age, and the pit around its foot shows how far the ground has risen since Constantine.

FAQ

Where is The Serpent Column located?

The Serpent Column is in Istanbul, Turkiet.

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