Basilica Cistern

Great piece of engineering. An underground water system that can hold water for an entire city in the olden days. However lots of renovation work going on - so u don’t get more than 5-10 mins to see the entire place. Inspite of collecting entrance fees surprising that the monuments r in such a state. Tourists can skip it

I went to visit the basilica cistern on Sunday September 4th, 2022 at 4:17pm. The line was quite long but moved relatively quickly I ended up reaching the ticket booth in about 10-15 minutes. I paid the amount to the tour office ticket officer. He was super rude and hostile. He stared me down and slammed my ticket and change on to the table in what seemed as a pathetic attempt to purposely offend and harm me. I’m pretty sure the ticket officer had a terrible agenda was acting on it in to the best of his capacity. This ruined my entire experience at the cistern as I wasn’t sure if this is meant to reflect the sentiments of the administration and/or of the country itself. I walked through the cistern which was structurally impressive, but lacked any kind of information regarding the structures inside and was super busy inside so it took away from the experience. The ticket was also quite pricy for the kind of experience it offered, perhaps including a tour guide in that price would be better. So all in all I would rate this place as 0 out of 5 for customer service and 3 out 5 for an actual cultural experience. My ticket number is 000513 and I got it from counter 6.
I wouldn’t recommend this place to anyone, purely because Of the horrendous customer service I was made to put up with on this trip.

Make sure your camera has a night mode or flash because it is dark up in this joint. 30 TL is a bit much for what you get but if you've never seen an underground cistern, you can check this off your bucket list. The Theodosius Cistern isn't far away and is actually lit (literally).

We very much enjoyed the Basilica Cistern. Although it is currently drained due to construction, we went after three very rainy days and there was water in the cistern. It is beautiful! If you are traveling during the time of the contraction, keep an eye on the weather forecast and go after a rain spell If possible. Had we gone the first part of the week it would have been dry.

Located at 150 metres of southwest of the Hagia Sophia.
The cistern is a must see. The columns and the lights transport you to another time.
The museum pass does not cover the entry. You must pay 50 tl per person and when you go down they take your temperature as a precaution for Covid 19.

We then followed our well worn path to Haigha Sofia and then the Basillica Cistern. We were in total shock to see the length of the queue - over 90 minutes - and we had to be at our next tour in 2 hours.

There were various 'official guides' patrolling the queue in evident delight at the size, peeling people off that could pay their fee to skip the line. I had a quick look online and the price they were charging was still less than any of the online skip the line tickets so we opted for one of those. Today was turning out an expensive day!! The cistern is one of the hundreds under the old city but certainly the largest and best preserved and was in use for around a thousand years until the Ottomans upgraded to moving water rather than stored water for health reasons.

The guide was good at explaining the history and restoration of the building and after he left we wandered around and took photos although it was massively crowded compared to when I visited with Deb about 15 years ago. There were several art exhibits down there with varying degrees of relevance but the medusa statue was good. The cistern is really rather awe inspiring both for the beauty of a structure that was not designed to be seen and the longevity - a thousand years!!
Definitely book in advance or get there early though, we paid £70 over the counter price to skip the 2 hour queue!

We went there as a family, it was raining outside so it made sense to be indoors too. Our young children were fascinated by it for the first 20 min then because it is dark there they lost interest. One section was closed too. We still recommend the place.

We visited basilica cistern in April 2018. It’s quite nice and intriguing. The inside is a bit dark and the mellow lightings add charm to it. There was a school visit at the time we were inside so it got a bit loud, but we’re happy we visited. There are usually art work decorating the alleys. There is also a 5TK (Turkish Lira) photo booth where you can dress up like ottomans :) which I’d recommend as much cheaper inside the basilica cistern (outside can be between 25TK and 30TK).

I was really anxious to visit this old place when I planned my Turkey trip and it was definitely worth the visit. This was an underground water reservoir for Hagia Sophia Museum. The place is just fantastic, although the floors were wet but their was Medusa's heads and then there was a pillar which is continuously wet and it's called the crying pillar. If you are in Istanbul, don't miss it. The tickets costed me 20 Turkish Lira as it was not included in my Museum Pass card.

This was so cool and so much better than I expected. It’s really amazing because it’s essentially just a huge, rectangular room with lots of columns, but the reflections from the water and the expertly designed lighting really makes a difference. The art sculptures throughout make for cool sights as well. I’m not sure if they rotate exhibits or the same pieces are always there but the ones we saw were very cool and added to the experience.

I think this is maybe a 30-45 minute sight, but if you’re in a hurry or aren’t feeling it you could probably get through the walkways and see it all in 10-15.

For tickets/entrance, you have to go across the street from where you see people exiting. I say this because if you’re coming the Hagia Sofia/Blue Mosque, you will likely see the people exiting first and think that’s the entrance too, but it’s not and is hidden around a corner sort of north from where the site shows up on google maps.