Light and Sound Show at the Cisterna Basilica in Istanbul
I was amazed at the sight of the inside of the Cisterna Basilica. I never imagined that there would be a huge cavern here in the middle of the city. The Cisterna Basilica is one of several cisterns that were built in Constantinople to supply water to the city, of those built, the Cisterna Basilica is the largest. It is impressive to see that the Romans spared no effort in building this the cistern because the columns were still designed very well even if no one would see them. I don’t really understand the logic behind it but I am glad they did. Interestingly, there is also a carving of a medusa’s head and for some reason this was done upside down.
Watching the Light and Sound Show at the Cisterna Basilica
There is a path visitors can take to explore the cistern. It was nice and cool inside so it was a nice respite from the very hot outdoors. After visitors are done seeing the columns, then what? It doesn’t really do anything and the cistern barely has any water in it. It turns out that there is a light and sound show here. There are projectors installed at the foot of each of the columns as well as the walls of the Cisterna Basilica. It basically tells the history of Istanbul via the light and sound show. I know most of the story here so I can’t say that it told me anything new but it was nice to see that they thought to do a light and sound show if only to make our visit more worth it. After all, it is just a cavern with impressive columns.
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