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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

Dating back to the 5th century, the Cistern of Philoxenos is one of Istanbul’s surviving Byzantine subterranean reservoirs and a hidden gem that’s off the tourist trail. While its Turkish name, ...

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 ...