YEREBATAN CISTERN (THE BASILICA CISTERN)

A FOREST OF MARBLE COLUMNS YEREBATAN CISTERN (THE BASILICA CISTERN)
in the Basilica Cistern dark green water partly illuminated by a blue light and lined with marble and granite columns, like trees of an old forest, that appear to be reaching to the sky, welcome you with their magnificence by captivating all your senses in the dim light. The Basilica Cistern Is definitely worth seeing.

The Basilica Cistern shows the advanced engineering skills of Byzantine civilization and is one of the most magnificent historical monuments of Istanbul. Although this amazing structure has become one of the most significant art and cultural centers of istanbul today, it was used as a reservoir for water storage for the Hagia Sophia during the Byzantine period and for Topkapi Palace during the Ottoman period. The cistern, located to the southwest of Hagia Sophia, was built by Justinian I in the 6th century. The Ottomans renamed this cistern "the Yerebatan Palace," which means the sunken palace, for its glamorous columns that rise from the water.
They only used the cistern for watering because of sanitary concerns.
As the story goes, the construction of the Basilica Cistern, which required the service of 7,000 slaves, was completed at the same time as the construction of the Hagia Sophia. The water stored in the Basilica Cistern came from the Belgrade Forest distributed via the Aqueduct of Valens (Bozdogan) constructed by the Emperor Valens in 368, and the Aqueduct of Maglova, constructed by Constantine I. The cistern, an architectural masterpiece at the time it was built, is 140 m long and 70 m wide.
There is a stone ladder, which has 52 steps in the cistern as well.
The Basilica Cistern has a ceiling supported by 336 columns, each of which is 9 m long.
If you consider the fact that each column is as high as the total length of 5 people, the feeling of greatness created by it can be fully appreciated.
High marble columns arising from the dark water give people the impression of walking in a foggy and mysterious forest.
In other words, the darkness of the cistern makes this place seem quite magical.
The classical music broadcast throughout the cistern and the melodic sounds of flowing water captivate visitors while simultaneously creating a serene environment with the combination of its visual works of art.
Concrete paths, which were added between the columns for visitors in the 1980s, give the columns the prominence of artifacts themselves. These marble and granite columns, nearly all of which are assumed to have been collected from old buildings of the pagan Roman period, are generally made of massive pieces of stone. The brick walls of the cistern, which are about 5 m thick, and the brick-fitted floor were made to be impermeable by plastering it with thick Horasan mortar. Plinths of the two columns in the northwest corner of the cistern are one of the most interesting artifacts of the museum. These Medusa-headed plinths are also assumed to have been brought from pagan Roman temples. These fantastic pieces from the 4th century show us the range that sculptured art reached during the Roman period.
So we can say that this cistern is A FOREST OF MARBLE COLUMNS :)