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Palaces, Aqueducts, Water Cisterns Turkey
Palaces, Aqueducts, Water Cisterns
Turkey
If the Byzantine palaces have not remained to the current
day it is because they were not protected as the
religious buildings were. Although the palaces were very
important examples of Byzantine architecture, none of
these buildings are standing today. The excavation which
began at the Sultanahmet Park and which extended all the
way down to the sea at Cankurtaran has only uncovered a
courtyard with a mosaic floor.
Another ruin of a Byzantine palace is the Blakhernai Palace
which was referred to as the Tekfur Palace by the
Ottomans. Any remains that have been found in the
Istanbul area are too incomplete, however, to give us any
clear and valuable information. The Bryas Palace ruins in
Bostanci do have the largest vaults available to us, and
the upper ruins of the palace do provide us with some
clues relating to this style of architecture. Researchers
who have studied these remains agree that the
architecture of the Byzantine palace resembles that of
the palace architecture of the Abbasids and the Emevi.
One of the most important types of Byzantine architecture to
survive to this day are the aqueducts and water cisterns.
The Valens Aqueduct, called the Bozdogan Kemeri in the
Ottoman period, is a valuable piece of architecture which
is still intact today. This aqueduct extended from Fatih
to Suleymaniye and gathered water from various sources
along its route from Thrace to Istanbul. One of the most
important still surviving cisterns is the Yerebatan Saray
(underground palace, the Basilica Cistern built by
Emperor Justinian. This cistern covers an area of
approximately ten thousand square meters. There are 336
marble columns inside this cistern.
Even if the art of sculpture was not as important to the
Byzantines as it was to the Romans, it still played a
very significant role in the artistic life of the
Byzantines. There are numerous statues and busts of
Byzantine emperors and other government officials on
exhibit at the Istanbul Archaeological Museum and at
other museums in the world. The base upon which the
obelisk at Sultanahmet Square rests is a relief of the
Emperor Theodosius the Great, and the relief also
pictures leading members of the place,and individuals
from the military and the common people watching the
ceremonies held at the Hippodrome. One of the other
unique characteristics of art in the Byzantine period was
the
advancement reached in decorated handicrafts.
Unfortunately, however, the wide and busts of Byzantine
emperors and majority of these artifacts were plundered
by the Crusaders during their campaign in Anatolia.
The fired pottery, candle holders, and seals which were used
in every-day life, plus the ornaments of silver and gold
have been admired both by researchers and by experts in
these fields. Numerous articles remaining
from the Byzantine period are exhibited in many of the
museums Istanbul ,and there are many examples of
hand-written documents of the Byzantine to the found in
the library of the Topkapi Museum
Turkey.
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