Historic site · Alemdar Mahallesi (Sultanahmet), Fatih, İstanbul
Yerebatan Sarnıcı · Yerebatan Sarayı
A vast 6th-century underground cistern in Sultanahmet, built for the Byzantine emperor Justinian I and now run as a museum by İBB Kültür A.Ş., the Istanbul municipality's cultural company.
Where it is
41.0085, 28.9784
The Basilica Cistern, known in Turkish as Yerebatan Sarnıcı, is a rectangular underground hall about 140 m long and 70 m wide, with a stated capacity of 80,000 tons of water, according to its operator, İBB Kültür A.Ş. (İstanbul Büyükşehir Belediyesi's cultural company). It was built under the Byzantine emperor Justinian I (527–565) on the site of the earlier Stoa Basilica, which gives the cistern its name. Petrus Gyllius, a French naturalist living in Istanbul, is credited with rediscovering it for Westerners between 1544 and 1555 and recorded its 336 columns. Two Medusa-head blocks, reused as column bases in the cistern's north-west corner — one upside down, one on its side — were found during the municipality's 1985–1987 restoration and cleaning. The cistern opened to visitors as a museum in 1987 on a purpose-built walkway; after what Kültür A.Ş. describes as the largest restoration in its history, it reopened on 22 July 2022 and today also hosts temporary exhibitions, contemporary art and concerts. The cistern lies within the area of the UNESCO World Heritage property "Historic Areas of Istanbul" (inscribed 1985), but UNESCO's own description names cisterns only as a building type present in the property and does not name the Basilica Cistern individually, so it is not a World Heritage Site in its own right.
Address, per the operator: Yerebatan Caddesi 1/3, Alemdar Mahallesi, Sultanahmet-Fatih. The operator's page does not publish an entrance coordinate distinct from the site's general location, and payment at the entrance is by card or İstanbulkart only, per the operator's listing read previously.
The operator's museum page does not mention accessibility, stroller use, step-free routes or age policy anywhere in its text, and the cistern's own dedicated site (yerebatan.com) was unreachable again today. None of this can be stated as fact; ask before visiting if you need a confirmed step-free or wheelchair route, or are travelling with a very young child.
Getting here
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Road last checked 2026-09-22.
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Guided tour · skygate
Basilica Cistern Skip the Line Ticket: Guided Tour
Skip-the-line admission to the Basilica Cistern with a guided tour. A security check still applies at entry. Check current price, dates and voucher terms on SkyGate. This page also lists combination tickets with other sites — for the Cistern alone, select "Guided Tour"; the combo options are not covered by this listing.
Mosque
The 6th-century Justinianic Hagia Sophia building on Ayasofya Meydanı, Fatih — a working mosque (Ayasofya-i Kebir Cami-i Şerifi) since 2020, part of the Historic Areas of Istanbul World Heritage property, with foreign cultural visitors routed since January 2024 to a separate ticketed gallery-level visitor route.
0 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Museum
A Ministry of Culture and Tourism museum in the historic Defter-i Hakani (land-registry) building on Sultanahmet Square, telling Hagia Sophia's roughly 1,700-year history across 13 audiovisual halls — a separate building and a separate ticket from the Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque itself.
0 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Mosque
Sultan Ahmed I's early 17th-century imperial mosque beside the Hippodrome in Sultanahmet, Fatih, Istanbul. It is an active place of worship that welcomes visitors outside prayer times.
0 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Museum
A Ministry of Culture and Tourism museum of Turkish and Islamic art, housed since 1983 in the 16th-century İbrahim Paşa Palace on the west side of Sultanahmet Square in Fatih, Istanbul.
0 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
The Basilica Cistern is Istanbul's largest covered Byzantine cistern, run as a museum by the city's culture company. This guide covers the 336 columns and the Medusa heads, the operator's separately priced day and evening sessions, what is unknown about stairs, strollers and children, and how the listed ticket options differ, including which showed no dates.
Ways to visit
Bookable experiences that include it.
Skip-the-line admission to the Basilica Cistern with a guided tour. A security check still applies at entry. Check current price, dates and voucher terms on SkyGate. This page also lists combination tickets with other sites — for the Cistern alone, select "Guided Tour"; the combo options are not covered by this listing.