Hippodrome of Constantinople (Sultanahmet Square)

Next to the Blue Mosque lies a long, elegant square lined with ancient monuments. This is the Hippodrome of Constantinople, known to the Ottomans as At Meydanı, the "Horse Square", and today simply as Sultanahmet Square. For more than a thousand years it was the place where the people of the city cheered chariot races, celebrated victories and, at times, rose in revolt.

History

A first hippodrome was built here by Emperor Septimius Severus around 203 AD. When Constantine the Great made the city his new capital in 330, he enlarged it into a grand arena some 450 metres long, able to hold tens of thousands of spectators, directly connected to the Great Palace through the imperial box, the kathisma. Racing factions known as the Blues and the Greens dominated public life, and in 532 their rivalry exploded into the Nika riots, which nearly toppled Justinian and destroyed much of the city, including the earlier Hagia Sophia. The arena was looted in 1204 during the Fourth Crusade, when the famous bronze horses now in St Mark's Basilica in Venice were carried away. In Ottoman times the ruined stands disappeared, but the open ground remained a stage for festivals and ceremonies.

What to See

The monuments stand along the line of the old central barrier, the spina, several metres below today's ground level.

• Obelisk of Theodosius – an Egyptian obelisk carved for Pharaoh Thutmose III about 3,500 years ago at Karnak, raised here by Theodosius I in 390 AD on a marble base showing the emperor at the races.
• Serpent Column – a bronze column of three intertwined snakes, made to commemorate the Greek victory over the Persians at Plataea in 479 BC and brought from Delphi by Constantine.
• Walled Obelisk – a rough stone obelisk restored by Constantine VII in the tenth century and once covered in gilded bronze plates.
• German Fountain – an octagonal neo-Byzantine fountain with a mosaic-lined dome, a gift from Kaiser Wilhelm II to commemorate his 1898 visit, inaugurated in 1901.
• İbrahim Pasha Palace – on the west side, home to the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts.

Visitor Tips

The square is open at all hours and there is no entrance fee, which makes it an easy place to start or end a walk in Sultanahmet. Look closely at the reliefs on the base of the Egyptian Obelisk and at the curve of the old arena, still visible in the line of buildings at the southern end. Benches and shade trees make it a pleasant stop between the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia and the Basilica Cistern, all within a few minutes' walk.

Because nothing here is labelled in depth, the Hippodrome is best enjoyed with a guide. On an Inca Tour Istanbul old city tour, your licensed guide brings the chariot races, the Nika riots and the long story of these monuments to life before continuing to the mosques and palaces nearby.