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Istanbul's Byzantine Hippodrome was
the heart of Constantinople's
political and sporting
life, and
the scene of games and riots through
500 years of Ottoman history
as well.
It's
now a calm city park called
the At Meydani (Horse
Grounds) because of its function
in Ottoman times.
Facing
one another across the Hippodrome are the Blue
Mosque and the Museum
of Turkish and Islamic Art.
Monuments
decorating the Hippodrome include
the 3500-year-old Egyptian Obelisk
of Theodosius, brought to Constantinople
by Emperor Theodosius in 390 AD.
You'll
also see the spiral
bronze base of a three-headed
serpent sculpture brought from
Delphi in Greece, under restoration
in 2007.
During
a visit in 1901, Kaiser Wilhelm
II of Germany erected an elaborate
temple-like fountain as a gift to
the sultan and his people.
Yerebatan
Saray, the Sunken Palace Cistern,
is beneath the little park at the
northern end of the Hippodrome.
Above the hidden cistern is a stone
tower that was once part of the
city's
system
of aqueducts.
Beside
the stone tower is the Milion, the
zero-mile-marker on the road
called the Mese,
the Roman road between Constantinope
and Rome. The street is now called Divan
Yolu.
Ayasofya
(Hagia Sophia) is across
the street from the stone tower, Topkapi
Palace is just beyond Ayasofya,
and the Istanbul
Archeological Museums are
next to Topkapi, down the hill
bordering Gülhane Parki.
Ayasofya
Blue
Mosque
Yerebatan
Saray (Cistern)
Istanbul
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