Turkey 12 - Istanbul / The Roman Hippodrome /the Serpent column /The Egyptian and the Walled Obelisks / the industrial looking chimney and the trams

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Istanbul is a city that offers a great deal to the traveller . So much history to uncover and so different to the usual city breaks . Has it been worth coming ? We had no doubts about that . Istanbul was delivering by the bucketload . We could have spent a week visiting mosques. A week spending time visiting museums when they were open . And to top it all there were palaces both ancient and modern and something Roman . We knew we were going to have to miss something in this city of millions of people . A cosmopolitan city which merged East and West quite seamlessly . From the cobbled streets to the carts selling hot chestnuts and corn on the cob it offered a different slant on life from other cities .

We left the Blue Mosque and headed out into what once was the Roman Hippodrome . The Hippodrome of Constantinople as was it was known in the Ancient World was the circus, the sporting arena and social centre of the city . Today the area is part of the square known as Sultanahmet . A square we always seemed to return to as it was the hub of the city full of cafes and restaurants . The first Hippodrome here was built in around AD 203 by the emperor Septimus Severus in what was known as Byzantium . Istanbul with its history is a city where you flit between all three names depending on what you are talking about . Chariot races were a common entertainment in the place we were standing . There was room for 100,000 spectators in the Hippodrome . Today it was a hive of activity . Walkers , runners and folks just sitting around enjoying the afternoon sunshine . The cafes buzzing with life . We heard Russian being spoken, Japanese , Chinese and all the European languages . It was hard to imagine that at the the height of the Hippodromes usage there were many statues of gods , emperors , animals , Roman heroes but nothing remains . Gardens now stretch on both sides along its length making it a green oasis in the city. Which can be welcome when you realise just how many locals and tourists are living and breathing Istanbul .

So what was still there in the Hippodrome . Well what was not there were the four gilded horses which were looted during the 4th Crusade in 1204 and are now in St Marks Venice . We have seen them and know there are calls for them to be returned . However , how can you return all the items moved around the world over time back to their original sites.? Other bronze horses and charioteers once adorned the space but they have long gone . The Great Palace of Constantinople had also been razed to the ground . We read about the races where large sums of money were bet on the results . Riots occured at times between the racing teams . One of the worse the Riots of Nika caused widespread destruction to the city . Football riots had nothing on the Riots of Nika.

By the 15th century the Hippodrome had fallen into ruin, racing was not seen as acceptable and although the site was never built over it was left to its own devices . Stone was reused around the city . So what was left to see . The green Serpent Column was work of art brought to the city by Constantine and Theodosius the Great . They set up monuments which are still there today . The Green column had been cast to to celebrate the victory of the Greeks over the Persians during the 5th century Persian Wars . The column may once have been moved from the Temple of Apollo at Delphi and had some sacrificial purpose.. The top was once adorned with a golden bowl supported by three serpents hence its name . Now the column was broken , the serpents and gold bowl long gone wen it was destroyed in 1700. It was quite small but that was only because it was sunk down to the level of the Hippodrome originally .

The obelisk of Thutmose III stood further down the Hippodrome . Originally erected by Pharoah Thutmose III at the Temple of Karnak it was brought to Constantinople by Theodosius . Carved from pink granite it was a lovely thing but felt totally out of place . The stone has survived for 3500 years and the hieroglyphs as clear as they day they were carved . It was placed on a roman plinth where the writing was less than clear and not survived as well as the obelisk above it .

The third monument in the space was another Obelisk . This one known as the Walled Obelisk . In the 10th century Constantine built this one at the opposite end of the Hippodrome A mirror image to the Egyptian obelisk but not as fine . Originally covered in glilded bronze plaques these were sacked in the Fourth Crusade . The stone core still survives. How splendid it must have looked when it was first erected .

At the heart of the paving lies the German Fountain constructed by the German government in 1900 to mark the visit of the Emperor Wilhelm II to the city in 1898 . The rest of the Hippodrome lies beneath the new paving . from the Hippodrome. Investigation did not continue further, but the seats and columns were removed and can now be seen in Istanbul's museums. It is possible that much more of the Hippodrome's remains still lie beneath the parkland of Sultanahmet.

Our last stop was to be the last Roman column in the city . A short walk took us over the tram lines to what looked like a dark brown burnt industrial chimney stack held together with metal rings . This was Constantines column . This was not in the Hippodrome and I guess many might never look for it . Known as Cemberlitas Sutunu in Turkish it sits on a street corner looking quite out of place . Many might walk past it as looked more industrial than Roman . It is though the oldest Constantian monument to survive in the city completed around 330AD. It was no longer on its original spot as it once stood at the centre of the forum on the second highest of Istanbuls seven hills. Around 1515 Ottoman repairs added iron reinforcing rings around the shaft and it was this together with the colour that give it the chimney industrial look . We read that corner where it stands now was once the Street of the Janissaries where it joined the Road to the Divan on the old Roman road . The modern trams on the Line T1 were trundleing along around the side of it . Modernity next to something so old.

The column was constructed using porphyry and was once set on a white marble pedestal which now lies hidden . The top is now 34.8 m above ground level but the height originally without the statue on top is estimated to be nearer to 37 or 40 metres . It was said the ceremony at the dedication of the obelisk was both pagan and Christian . There were fragments of the True cross in the orb and at the foot of the column a sanctuary containing relics from the crosses where the two thieves were crucified , An Alabaster jar belonging to Mary Magdalene and the Baskets from the loaves and fishes miracle were also placed inside . The pillar suffered fire damage in the 5th and 6th centuries and a gale in 1106 brought down come of the cylinders . The Crusaders plundered as they always did . Earthquakes and a further fire in 1779 destroyed much of the area and the column earned its new name The Burnt Column.

We walked back to our hotel picking our way up and down the cobbled streets and stopping off at a cafe for mint tea and a type of moist carrot cake we pondered on the odd places for cafes. This one was through an Islamic graveyard . No mosque just lines and lines of tall cylindrical gravemarkers . The trams too fascinated . They shared the road with pedestrians , cars, vans and scooters . Only once did we see a problem when a young lad when head over the handlebars of his delivery scooter . His wheels must have caught in the tram lines . It seems that everyone knew their place and their relation to the trams . The trams were on time and were clean and modern . The T1 line which is one of the most popular runs from Bağcılar”, one of the suburbs of Istanbul, and “Kabataş”, one of the transportation hubs of the Bosphorus shores. We were close to Gulhane tram stop. The old trams were removed as foolishly it was seen that Istanbul would move more freely without them on the streets .However the reality proved otherwise and the trams were reinstated making it easier to traverse parts of the city . Sadly the network has not been completed and the journey to the new airport does not have a direct train or tram route yet from the centre of the city . Apart from that we need to learn about tram systems in cities . We were to try it out in the morning as we were heading for the Bosphorous for a well deserved 2 and a half hour cruise of the great strait that divides Istanbul into two cities - one Asian side and one European .

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Comments

[anjali]

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