About Basilica Cistern
Go down a few steps from the street and the low light reveals 336 columns about 9 meters (30 feet) tall, in 12 rows of 28. The cistern was built in Justinian's time, measures about 138 by 65 meters and could hold up to 80,000 cubic meters of water.
In the northwest corner, two columns rest on blocks carved with the face of Medusa, of unknown origin. The place has appeared in "From Russia with Love" (1963) and in Dan Brown's "Inferno", and it reopened in 2022 after a restoration.
