A Day Full of Old City Istanbul Tourism: Stop 3: The Most Expensive Tourism Ticket in Town

Your pagan gods have no power here. Here: in the Cistern

And the winner for the most expensive tourism ticket in this tourist town of Istanbul (and, for the last time, NOT Constantinople):  the Basilica Cistern.  The cost is more than 2,300 Turkish lira, which puts the price at just under $50 plus in U.S. dollars.

Roman engineering at its finest.

This is, in fact, Roman architecture and engineering. It was built in 532 A,D. (and, again, and this is a crusade for me, it's "A.D." and not the ill-descriptive "C.E.," as the numbering system denoted by "A.D." and "C.E." reference the same event, so let's be clear about what started the numbering system rather than being cryptically and stupidly ambiguous) (rant over). This was during the reign of Roman Emperor Justinian. Keep in mind that, by this time, Rome have fallen to the goths (and, no, I don't mean moody teenagers dressed in black listening to Siouxsie and the Banshees records), so the "Roman" Empire was now based in Constantinople (not Rome). This means the Basilica Cistern dates to around the same time as the construction of Hagia Sophia, the "basilica" referenced in the name "Basilica Cistern." 

In their day, this cistern was completely filled with water. Which would have made tourist exploration decidedly more difficult. Unless you had scuba gear. Which still hadn't been invented even that late in the Roman Empire era.

But now the water is shallow. The space is very humid, but the water is shallow enough for a tourist to walk through comfortably. Por ejemplo:

It is amazing that the Roman engineers built such impressively detailed columns ... even though the dang thing was completely flooded with water and all that intricate craftsmanship would not be seen until 21st Century tourism.

I'm guessing it was all about ego, to show that nobody on Planet Earth out-engineers Roman engineering. Of course, the reason also could be more modest, just like intricate designs in the Gothic Cathedrals that were never seen by worshippers: the design was designed to be seen by God and that's all.

But not the pagan gods:

Here is the smooshed head of Medusa at the base of one of the columns. This is an example of recycling. Pagan statuary was "repurposed" to build and decorate the Basilica Cistern. In a mocking way. Because why not?

So was it worth the huge price tag just so the typical Turista Americana can get his photo op?

Istanbul is generally a travel bargain, so why not splurge to see this one "nowhere else like it in the rest of the world" tourism experience?