THE HIPPODROME
The Serpentine Column c.479BC
The Egyptian Obelisk [left], which was built in about 1500 BC, stood outside Luxor in Egypt until Constantine the Great brought it to the city he had named after himself. This beautifully carved monument is broken and is about one third of its original height.
The Serpentine Column [below], believed to date from 479 BC, was shipped to Constantinople from Delphi. The heads of the serpents were knocked off in the 18th century by a drunken Polish nobleman.
The Column of Constantine Porphyrogenitus [left] is named after the Emperor who restored it in the 10th century AD. It is also sometimes called the 'Brazen Column' because it is thought it was originally sheathed in a bronze case. Its dilapidated state owes much to the fact that young men would regularly climb it in former times as a test of their bravery.
Little remains today of the gigantic stadium which once stood here at the centre of Constantinople. Begun by the Emperor Septimus Severus in the 3rd century, and extended by the Emperor Constantine I ['the Great'] in the 4th century, at its peak it could hold up to 100,000 spectators. Today it is an elongated public park standing in the shadow of the famous Blue Mosque.