Alright all you Bachelor and Bachelorette fans, this post is dedicated to you. Why, oh why, you ask is this blog devoted entirely to me and my favorite reality show gem? Because I’m in Istanbul and if you recall, Ali Fedotowsky’s whirlwind search for romance landed her right in the exact same place. If watched as religiously as I did (let’s face it, Ali and her group of love-struck fellas were a notch classier than other seasons) you would remember when she had dinner with Frank in a dark, romantically lit, river thingy. Well, it turns out that that “river thingy” happened to be the Basilica Cistern, an ancient, underground cavern built to store water during Justinian’s time. It is incredible. Dimly lit, with some ground background music playing, the cistern is enormous, dark and moody. It’s the perfect place you’d want to film a really sexy scene. Apparently it was also featured in the James Bond film From Russia with Love, which gives me a very good reason to have a James Bond marathon when I get home (oh James, twist my arm why don’t you?). Plagued with water problems, Justinian built the expansive cistern to alleviate the problem. At some point, the cistern was forgotten about, but people still reaped its benefits by residual water leached from the ground around it. They simply thought it was a lucky place to get water. Yeah, luck or genius Byzantine infrastructure work, dark ages people. Now it is has been drained to a couple of feet and about twenty years ago was further drained and a walkway was built throughout a small portion of it. And then they started filming reality tv shows there. So really, the cistern is at the height of it fame right now. ;)
There are 366 pillars within the cistern.
Cool, dark and a little creepy. I love it!
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