As May 2026 arrives, Istanbul is hitting its stride with comfortable weather and flight deals starting around $593 from the US, making it the perfect window for your first international leap. However, ...

Atlas Obscura on Slate is a blog about the world’s hidden wonders. Like us on Facebook and Tumblr, or follow us on Twitter. A Frenchman visiting Constantinople in the 16 th century heard strange ...

The Basilica Cistern in Istanbul is almost 1500 years old. I’m writing this in Atlanta, a city that’s barely 180 years old. Time will destroy you if you think about it too much. Istanbul is a ...

The youngest brother of Britain’s King Charles on Tuesday visited the famed Basilica Cistern Museum in the heart of Istanbul’s historic Fatih district. Officials from the Istanbul city government and ...

People visit the Basilica Cistern in Istanbul, Türkiye, Oct. 28, 2025. (Xinhua/Liu Lei) Photo taken on Oct. 28, 2025 shows a view of the Basilica Cistern in Istanbul, Türkiye. (Xinhua/Liu Lei) People ...

People visit the Basilica Cistern in Istanbul, Türkiye, July 23, 2022. Photo: Xinhua People visit the Basilica Cistern in Istanbul, Türkiye, July 23, 2022. Photo: Xinhua People visit the Basilica ...

The Basilica Cistern is an ancient cistern that lies underneath the grounds of Istanbul. The cistern was built by Emperor Justinian in 532, in the former city of Constantinople, to supply water to the ...

Join Istanbul-based poet and writer Pelin Batu as she explores a museum bursting with history, myth and legend. Built in the 6th Century for the eastern Roman Empire from older building fragments, The ...

Gingerly descending 52 steps, I enter a vast cavernous space, as magnificent as a cathedral. The space is cool, as though it were air-conditioned, and I can hear strains of soft music. Wooden ...

ISTANBUL, TURKEY—While restoring the eighteenth-century Nuruosmaniye Mosque, located near Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar, workers from Foundations Istanbul Provincial discovered an Ottoman-era cistern. “We ...