Cistern of Philoxenos: An Ancient Underground Water Reservoir in Istanbul
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.3
- Popularity
- Medium
- Country
- Turkey
- Primary era
- Classical
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Classical
- Civilizations
- Roman
- Site type
- Infrastructure
- Remains
- Cistern
On this page7 sections
History
The Cistern of Philoxenos, also called the Binbirdirek Cistern, is a fifth-century underground water reservoir in Istanbul, Turkey, built under a city palace during the late Roman and early Byzantine period. It is one of Constantinople’s oldest underground reservoirs. The palace above it is often identified as the Palace of Antioch, although another interpretation associates the cistern with the Palace of Lausus, two palatial complexes of the imperial city.
Foundation and Byzantine restoration
Construction was attributed to the senator Philoxenos, who may have begun the project during the reign of Constantine I. Constantine was the Roman emperor whose rule initiated Constantinople’s transformation into the imperial capital of the eastern Roman world. The reservoir was restored in 528 by Emperor Justinian I, a sixth-century Byzantine ruler known for extensive building, legal, and restoration projects. This work followed the complete destruction by fire of the palace above the cistern in 475.
Until the middle of the twelfth century, the cistern received water from the Aqueduct of Valens, a major Roman aqueduct serving Constantinople. Later, its water came from the Pera cistern, a separate storage installation associated with the city’s Pera district, as well as from atmospheric precipitation.
Ottoman-era changes and later use
After the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453, the reservoir fell into disuse. It was rediscovered in the seventeenth century during construction of Fazli Pasha’s house or palace on the site. A legend from this period tells that Cevahirli Hanım Sultan lured men into her house, killed them, and discarded their bodies in the cistern. This story is a legend rather than an established historical event.
The cistern later housed silk-working workshops. Mark Twain recorded their presence in his travel notes from 1860. After another period of abandonment, openings formed in the vaults and were used for dumping refuse. Clearance work in 2002 removed more than 7,000 truckloads of rubbish. The reservoir was subsequently restored and converted into a museum, while also being used for exhibitions, concerts, banquets, weddings, and other ceremonies.
The cistern is also associated with the Auspicious Incident of 1826, the armed abolition of the Janissary Corps, the elite infantry force of the Ottoman state. Approximately 100 Janissaries drowned after fleeing into the reservoir during the conflict. The identification of the Binbirdirek Cistern with the Cistern of Philoxenos remains disputed, and some researchers consider the identification erroneous.
Remains
The reservoir lies in Istanbul’s historic Sultanahmet district, between the Forum of Constantine and the Hippodrome of Constantinople. Its entrance is at İmran Öktem Sokak 4. The underground structure covers approximately 3,640 square metres and measures about 64 by 56.4 metres. Its large hypostyle chamber, an interior space supported by numerous columns, is covered by brick vaults and organized around a regular grid of marble supports.
Marble columns and vaulted chamber
The chamber contains 224 marble columns arranged in 16 rows of 14. Each column is 14 to 15 metres high and was made from marble quarried on nearby Marmara Island. The supports consist of two superimposed columns joined at the middle by a marble ring. Most columns and capitals carry inscriptions made up of several Greek letters. These marks have been interpreted either as the signatures of workshop foremen or as marks left by Greek masons.
Levels and altered floor
The cistern originally had three levels linked by stairs. The lowest level probably served to remove sediment and excess water and is now inaccessible. The floor was later reinforced, leaving the upper part of each column and a short section of the lower shaft visible. A central excavated pond contains four columns and provides evidence for judging the original height of the supports. Restoration did not remove the accumulated historical refuse down to the original floor, so the lower portions of the columns remain buried.
Water capacity and name
The cistern has a stated capacity of 40,000 cubic metres. Its Turkish name, Binbirdirek, means “1,001 Columns,” but the reservoir contains 224 columns. The surviving vaulted chamber, column arrangement, altered floor, and central excavated pond together reveal the scale and construction of the underground water-storage system.
