The traces of Roman and Byzantine Constantinople are few and far between in modern Istanbul. One of the largest remaining is the Hippodrome of Constantinople
Here, too, came the end of the Nika revolts in A.D. 532, where over 30,000 were killed in the hippodrome
Of the many items that decorated this area, only three remain. One is the Walled Obelisk. Likely built by the Emperor Theodosius, it was covered with brass plates which were stripped off during the Fourth Crusade of A.D. 1204, leaving only the inner core.
Another is the Obelisk of Theodosius, brought by the Emperor Theodosius in the 4th Century A.D. from Luxor in Egypt. The column itself is a memorial of Pharoah Thutmose III (reigned 1479 - 1425 B.C.) commemorating a military victory.
Beneath the column a pediment displays scenes from the reign of Theodosius.
The third is an old friend: The original of the monument of the Greeks from Delphi celebrating their victory over the Persians in 479 B.C. at the Battle of Platea. We visited Delphi and the original site of this column last year.
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| (Note the wall around the column. The base is placed on what would have been the ground in A.D. 300.) |
The Hippodrome was, following the Fourth Crusade, never returned to its original glory. Eventually its ruins were used for stones for other buildings. Now it is a long flat oval called Sultanmehmet Square.
In 1898, the German Kaiser Wilhelm II paid a visit to the Ottoman Sultan Abdulhamid II. Two years later, to honor that visit, a Fountain - The German Fountain - was constructed to memorialize that visit.
The German Plaque memorializes the visit.
The fountain stands alone, a memorial to two dynasties that were swept away.
Good photos TB, it would be something to have seen the Hippodrome in its heyday, talk about a spectacle, not to mention the plumbing.
ReplyDeleteNylon12, it is a flat square now, so one really has to use one's imagination to see the bleachers rising up and the Imperial box (on the end where the German Fountain now sits). The noise must have been deafening.
DeleteThe engineering of such structures is amazing. I watched a show on how Romes Colosseum was flooded to have spectacles of Naval Battles. A common theme in studying history is how often the structures were robbed and stones turned into other structures after the empire that built them fell.
ReplyDeleteMichael, the more I see and read of Roman engineering and architecture, the more impressed I become. Not only because of the scale (which is often breathtaking in and of itself, if you consider this was all done 2,000 yeas ago without any of the benefits of modern technology or modern energy.
DeleteIt is neat seeing the original column taken from Delphi. I hadn't remembered where it was taken too during the tour speech but I remember the replica of it.
ReplyDeleteEd, it was one of the things that I knew had been transported to Constantinople. One of the few things I can say I saw the original and the copy.
DeleteInteresting post (of course!) It's a shame that conquerors (or wannabe conquerors) tend to destroy what they find. I suppose it's an attempt to leave their mark. I can't even imagine how much cultural history has been lost (and continues to be lost) this way.
ReplyDeleteLeigh, in this case it seems it was a combination of using available stone for new buildings and "upscaling the space", as it were - as opposed to other places, where it is very definitely an attempt to leave their mark.
DeleteWe likely lose a lot of history like this now - but we always have; reading ancient descriptions of Greece and Rome, we find references to things that through destruction, natural disasters, or just "because", no longer existed. Haghia Sophia in Constantinople (now the Aya Sofia Mosque) exists because of the aforementioned Nika Revolt, which destroyed the church that previously existed there.