Yesterday afternoon, the four of us wove our way through
narrow twisting cobblestone side streets considering our dinner options. Just before we approached a point where three
streets converged, a door in one of the white washed walls to my right flew
open revealing a long dark interior corridor that led to yet another street. A motorcycle whizzed by just missing the young boy
carrying a tray of small tulip shaped glasses full of steaming tea. The first of many James Bond moments, I’m
sure.
The second happened today at the Basilica Cistern, where I
learned To Russia With Love was in fact filmed. After our morning tour of the heavenly Hagia
Sophia, we descended deep into the bowels of the earth to find this incredible
underground sanctuary devoted to water.
The cistern was built by the Romans in around 500 AD and was one of many
(but surely the grandest) underground water reservoirs throughout the
city. Rows upon rows of ornately carved
marble columns support the arched brick ceiling.
Photo credits: Booker McCann
We learned that the most of the columns were salvaged from other
buildings throughout the empire. The
most striking has carved Medusa head resting at the bottom.
Imagine the labor, the slave labor, it took to bring this masterwork to life. As well as the aquaducts that carried the water from the far-away Belgrade Forest. Something for us visitors to contemplate as we watched the fat goldfish slowly circle in the (now) shallow coin-filled water.
No comments:
Post a Comment