The first thing a tourist visiting Istanbul will think of is that one can never orient here. It is true, on one hand. On the other hand, the historical part of Istanbul is so compact that in a week or two one will feel himself quite confident, there. I myself investigated the route including stops at all the historical places like Blue mosque, Hagia Sophia, Hippodrome, Egyptian bazaar, and here we are – I feel myself almost home, here. I advise you to do so as well, it is worth trying. Here, I do not even doubt that you visit Istanbul, but since you have not yet, let me offer you a short tour. We are starting at the Hippodrome.
"It is probably the only place on Earth where, within an area of rather a minute football pitch monuments of four civilizations reside. Besides, the Hippodrome itself is a monument," I explain.
Middle Ages monument is a column facing sea with cavities on its surface. The cavities had been used in mounting the metal plates that later were taken off by the crusaders and sent to Europe.
Ancient Egypt monument is another column with hieroglyphs inscribed that had been brought to Constantinople in many years by the Emperors. The column had been left in the way for several times (Emperors kept forgetting it, then remembered about it again). The column had been extremely heavy, and the sailors who actually had brought it, once decided to cut it shorter. They cut the lower, heaviest part off, and the problem was solved. When in Constantinople, the column was simply mounted on stone plates to provide the stability.
And, finally, the common monument of two civilizations – Greeks and Persians. It is the greenish metal column standing between the two stone ones. Do you know what it is? It’s weapons! Namely, Persian shields and swords. Persians were defeated by Greeks, and the weapons of defeated were molten to form a column. Later, the column was delivered to Constantinople. It could not be restored completely, and got rather smaller, therefore some tourists think that those Persians had amazingly thin shields and minute swords...
"By the way, guess what we are standing on," I ask.
You will be surprised having heard the answer. Not only a hippodrome where horsed raced and spectators made their bets, this place is a common grave as well. This hideous event took part in early Middle Ages, and it is a part of town history in any way. Craftsmen and minor merchants rebelled in 6th century. The new taxes were too much for them. In the beginning, it seemed that the rebels will celebrate their victory, but the foreign mercenaries interfered. Goths, with local soldiers still devoted to the Emperor defeated the rebels. And there began the terrible thing described by contemporaries as follows.
"Quarries started among the rebels, and the crowd on the hippodrome divided into two parts. At the same time, Velisarius and Mundus groups together with the soldiers devoted to Justinian entered the hippodrome from several sides and started slaughtering the divided rebels without mercy... People fell like mowed grass. Entering the Emperor’s kafisma his nephews Voraid and Just seized the rebellion leaders Ipatius and Pompeus. Without listening to the later, Emperor ordered to arrest them, and the next day they were executed. More than 35 thousand people were killed in that horrible slaughter..."
Nobody carried the bodies away from the hippodrome. They were simply strewed with soil... Bit by bit, people forgot about this event, and the hippodrome regained its popularity as the best entertainment place among the citizens. Now, tourists like visiting it. They enjoy watching the Greek column made of Persian shields; they stand frozen looking at the Egyptian column. They only calm down having heard about the "Nika" rebellion, and understand that the very ground of the Hippodrome is a monument itself...
Departing the Hippodrome, all the tourists, including us, will go to either the Blue mosque, or Hagia Sophia.
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