The Water Supply of Constantinople. 9 



columns, each of a single block, with Corinthian capitals, 

 and fifteen feet apart ; the length of it is marked by rows 

 of sixteen columns, and its width by rows of twenty-eight, 

 being about 275 feet wide by 475 feet long. The cistern 

 usually appears to the traveler, with the columns hidden 

 to two-thirds of their height in water, but that portion of 

 them which is visible is covered with sculptured ornament- 

 ation. The spot from which you gaze over its waters is 

 not a regularly constructed opening, nor is it known where 

 there is one ; this has been made by the failure of some of 

 the pillars to sustain the superincumbent mass. The roof 

 has failed in several other directions, not visible from the 

 place where you look in. It is not known who or how 

 many have the means of obtaining water from this cistern. 

 Boats have at times been in use for the curious traveler, 

 and an Englishman is said on one occasion to have followed 

 a canal from the cistern in a boat for two hours in a right 

 line, and returned without reaching a termination. 



One quite perfect but empty cistern is the Budrum. It 

 is not as large as some of the others, but is very beautiful 

 in its architecture. Its columns are three times the circum- 

 ference of those in other cisterns, each of a single block. 

 It is also occupied by silk spinners, like that of the Thou- 

 sand and One Columns. 



The original solidity, the number, the capacity for hold- 

 ing water, and even the architectural beauty of these 

 cisterns, render them a most remarkable branch of the 

 earliest Constantinople water system. They were designed 

 as cisterns of reserve, either to enable the city to stand a 

 protracted siege, or to respond to the necessities of the 

 population, when in consequence of drought or accident 

 the water in the reservoirs outside should be exhausted. 

 But the conquerors of the infidels never believed in a com- 

 ing time when they should be besieged, and their under- 

 draws, viii.'] 2 



