How many cisterns were in constantinople

The aqueduct could be cut, but the cisterns would supply water for a city for a limited period during a siege. Cisterns, Rhythms, Victims! Theres Lots Of More. Lakes, rivers, cisterns, reservoirs. Constantinople was in Greece. Constantinople - modern Istanbul. Constantinople was the capital of the Byzantine Empire. It remained Constantinople for many centuries after the Ottoman invasion on AD. It was not renamed Istanbul until Log in. Istanbul and Constantinople.

See Answer. Best Answer. Study guides. Q: How many cisterns were in Constantinople? Write your answer Related questions. The cistern, whose real name is unknown, got its name from Nakilbent Street. Nakkas Carpet Store, which was opened in the area in the early s, found this precious historical artifact and turned it into a museum during the construction of the building.

You can find a lot of information about the history of the Hippodrome, where chariot races were held in Constantinople, in the small-scale exhibition inside the Nakilbent Cistern. The Hippodrome was hosting the tough chariot races between the Blues and the Greens. Today, only a few columns remain from Hippodrome, a stadium where tens of thousands of people gathered. For this reason, most travelers do not know what this square really is.

If you visit the exhibition in Nakilbent Cistern, you can strengthen your knowledge about Hippodrome. Cistern of Aetius was an important part of the water system of Constantinople, which had a rather complex structure.

Unlike other cisterns mentioned in the article, Cistern of Aetius was an open water reservoir. Cistern of Aetius, which was built in the 5th century like the Theodoius Cistern mentioned above, was built by one of the governors of Theodosius II period, Aetius.

The cistern, which lost its importance in the Ottoman period, was turned into the stadium of a football team during the Republican period. While going from Fatih to Edirnekapi, you can see this stadium on the right. It is also very close to some other Byzantine monuments in Istanbul such as Kariye Museum and the Palace of the Porphyrogenitus. This is Serhat Engul. I wish you a wonderful trip! Your email address will not be published. Istanbul Clues travel guide is designed to introduce you to the history, museums, restaurants and culture of istanbul.

Table of Contents. Hello explorer of Istanbul! Leave a Reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. Footer Istanbul Travel Guide Istanbul Clues travel guide is designed to introduce you to the history, museums, restaurants and culture of istanbul. The cisterns in Constantinople exist at scales far beyond the domestic rainwater-harvesting cisterns of Greece and in numbers far beyond those of North Africa.

In Constantinople we believe that the cisterns formed a unique storage and distribution system that would have required significant operation and management to be successful. Our longer list of cisterns, along with the collated data on dimensions and construction period enable us to reflect on what can now be surmised about the water supply in Constantinople.

Although the source of water for the cisterns of Constantinople is unverified, it is highly likely that the cisterns were fed by the two aqueducts rather than by rainwater harvesting Crow et al. The collection areas required for the larger cisterns would be colossal, but the topography of the city, with steeply sloping spurs, and the location of cisterns, generally high up the slope, reduce the available collection area.

The tendency for cisterns to be found in clusters also reduces the available collection catchment per cistern. Rainwater is likely to have been the primary source of water for the smallest cisterns in the city which we can assume are domestic cisterns not to be associated with the wider network. Rain may also have provided a secondary source of water for some larger cisterns where roof and courtyard surfaces could be conveniently channelled. A full calculation of rainwater harvesting potential is outwith the scope of this paper but with annual rainfall of between and mm estimated for the Antique period these estimates are from a preliminary unpublished Macrophysical Climate Model study and an estimated population of , Jacoby , the entire historic peninsula at approximately Of course, the cisterns would only collect a fraction of the rain falling on the city, not all of it.

As soon as we start to make this calculation more realistic by reducing the area available for collection, assuming some losses of rainfall and taking into consideration seasonal variation the water available per capita becomes unfeasibly small. The enormous investment represented by the cisterns was not to enable the city to just struggle along but in order to let it flourish.

To do that, the cisterns must have been fed by the aqueducts. Figure 2 illustrates the overall distribution across the city, with a clear concentration of cisterns along the ridge that comprises Hills One to Six.

Given that the cisterns tend to follow the route of the aqueduct, we can suggest that the cluster of cisterns around Hill One indicates that at least one of the aqueducts extended this far.

These finds confirm the notion that cisterns were present throughout most parts of the city. Numbers indicate the hills of the city. From Figure 2 it is apparent that there is a greater concentration of cisterns around Hills One and Two, the oldest area of the city, where the population was likely to be the highest. We know that some households had piped water supplies, based on law codes governing the size of supply pipe permitted Codex Theodosianus Public fountains are also mentioned in the law codes and it is around fountains that people are reported to gather in times of water shortage Procopius, Secret History So people are unlikely to live far from a cistern and there are cisterns distributed across the city, which would maximise the ease of access to water by the population.

The furthest distance of any point in the city from a cistern is 1, m, on Hill Seven, in the zone between the Constantinian and Theodosian Walls. If considering the more populated area within the Constantinian Walls, the maximum distance to a cistern drops to just m.

Again, this is on the periphery, where the population density was likely to have been lower. There is volume data for just under half of the cisterns, although in some cases the depth had to be estimated from photographs. It should be noted that these volumes represent the upper bound of possible storage, as there is no clear evidence that cisterns were used up to the maximum possible capacity and the depth of a cistern might have been influenced by factors other than the need for storage.

The distribution of cisterns across the range is illustrated in Figure 3 , where five size-categories have been used. The largest cisterns are three open-air cisterns that provide over three-quarters of the known storage volume within the city and may have a function feeding the rest of the system when inflows are low or have other purposes associated with agriculture or industry.

Most cisterns are difficult to date with any precision. Others may be dated from specific forms of construction, and others through the reuse of dateable architectural members which provides a terminus post quem for the works. The attribution of cisterns by period is shown in Table 1 below and the distribution is illustrated in Figure 4.

Cistern distribution by era: Early era 4th to 7th century — square; Mid era 8th to 12th century — circle; Late era 13th to 15th century — triangle; Unknown era — dot.

The extremely large open-air reservoirs are located on the periphery of the city in the intramural area i. All the large, covered cisterns are clustered in the oldest area of the city, on Hills One and Two. The size of the cisterns reflects the density of the population, which would imply a high demand for water.

But the same density would preclude open cisterns, since space is at a premium. Why is Medusa head upside down?

Medusa column bases. Todd Konke Professional. Is Istanbul safe? Istanbul is safe to visit if you avoid some parts of it that are considered somewhat dangerous. You should be aware that tourist hotspots, restaurants, shops, and public transportation are places where most thefts and pickpocketing occur, and that violent crime exists here, too. Nolberta Poret Explainer. How does a cistern work? The cistern upper tank of water drains through a valve in the center through the force of gravity.

The valve and flushing mechanism in the middle is called the siphon. As the water rises, the float rises with it, tilting the lever and slowly shutting off the ball valve. There's a little bit more to toilets than this. Claris Arbilla Explainer. How do you get to the Basilica Cistern? The Basilica Cistern is at Sultanahmet Square. After arriving at the Sultanahmet tram stop, the cistern is a short walk away.