basilica cistern | istanbul travel deck no. 9

 

Basilica Cistern is an underground cistern — a palace-like structure — where the Romans stored water. I went there last autumn with a visiting friend, and in spite of the tourists taking romantic selfies everywhere, and the modern art installations (some which felt eerily on point; others which felt out of place), the place itself does feel mystical and otherworldly; surrealist, and even maybe a little bit haunted. Those are Medusa gorgon heads you see, sculpted as column decor, and deliberately turned sideways or upside down.

you can’t help but imagine, if, millenia ago, when this place was full of water, if there were other creatures or spirits that also swam inside of it. I read somewhere on a sign that the locals would collect water by dropping a bucket through their basement floors — and somehow, their homes were connected to this cistern. (how that actually works, I have no idea.) then, during the era in which it fell into disrepair and ruins, dead bodies were dropped here. Istanbul, of course, is a city that is full of ruins. sometimes, I’m so immersed in daily life that I forget this.

I drew this card at night, while listening to the 2003 album by Josh Groban — the first time I heard it, since being 13 years old and semi-obsessed with him.

The effect I wanted to give was: the gaze and reflections of Medusa, aliveness of water, and the domed architecture, which gave one a sense of infinity, and somehow, something underwater being connected to the sky.

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