gonna do something unheard of before – you asked for it, a live link on the main page.
We’ll see how this goes.

In English, the Basilica Cistern

In 1963, most of us probably saw James Bond and Kerim Bey taking a boat ride across this cistern.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_C4onQG3ViY

Supposedly underneath the Soviet Consulate in Istanbul. The movie plot adjusted some facts to fit the script.

Yerebatan Sarnıcı aka Basilica Cistern
41.00837185581115, 28.977889526764773

Largest of many cisterns under the city of Istanbul was built in the 6th century during the reign of Justinian, emperor of Byzantium. Before construction, this was the site of a large basilica (a Roman public building) which had been built around 300 AD. The cistern continued to provide water to the 1st hill of Constantinople and into the Ottoman era.

Restoration began in the 1980s with the removal of silt which uncovered the pillars with the head of Medusa. It is assumed those columns were from a demolished temple and reuse as support columns, some placed upside-down. The cistern was opened as a museum in the late 1980s. It is classified as a 1st-class World Heritage Site. The cistern measures 450ft x 215 ft, roughly the size of Hagia Sophia and capable of holding over 2.8 million cubic feet of water. There are 336 marble columns, each 30 ft high.

Soviet, now Russian, Consulate
41.029917304343606, 28.97553052274598
located across the Golden Horn from the Basilica Cistern

The Russian Embassy is located in Ankara, the capital of Turkey.

Diplomatic relations between Russia and Turkey date back to the late 1400s. Between the late 1500s and early 1900s, the relationship was mostly adversarial, with numerous wars between the two. However, by the 1920s, the relation ship warmed after the Russians gave assitance to the revolutionaries of the Turkish War of Independence. The relationship turned down again after WWII as the Soviet govt demanded concessions and territorial claims. Turkey joined NATO in 1952 at the low point of the relation but began to improve after renounceiation of territory claims upon Stalin’s death.

The relationship warmed further after the collapse of the Soviet Union and both became among the other’s largest trade partners. Russia provides much of Turkey’s energy; Turkey is a top tourist destination for Russian citizens. Turkey is the only NATO country not on Russia’s unfriendly country list.

Mrs DT is Turkish by birth. I was lucky enough to be able to visit western Turkey – Istanbul to Izmir – with locals over a 2-month period. Maybe never to be repeated, it was a fabulous visit. I’ll have much more to show and talk of later on.