Hippodrome of Constantinople (Sultanahmet Square)

From racetrack to Horse Square

Work began under the Roman emperor Septimius Severus around 203 AD. When Constantine the Great made the city his capital in 324–330, he enlarged the track and linked it directly to the Great Palace. Estimates put it at around 450 metres long, with room for tens of thousands of spectators. On the eastern side stood the Kathisma, the imperial box, where the emperor appeared before his people.

Racing here was politics. The Blues and the Greens were fan clubs and power blocs at once, and in 532 they united under the cry “Nika!” (Conquer!) against Justinian. Much of the city burned, and according to the historian Procopius the revolt ended with tens of thousands killed inside the Hippodrome. The rebuilding that followed gave the city today's Hagia Sophia and the Basilica Cistern.

Crusaders looted the Hippodrome's statues in 1204; its famous four bronze horses ended up in Venice. Under the Ottomans the area became At Meydanı, Horse Square, the stage for javelin games, processions and the weeks-long circumcision festival Murad III threw for his son in 1582.

The four monuments, north to south

Chariots raced around a central barrier called the spina, which emperors decorated with trophies from across the empire. Here is what stands along it today:

• The German Fountain: an octagonal domed fountain given by Kaiser Wilhelm II and unveiled in 1901.
• The Obelisk of Theodosius: a 15th-century BC Egyptian obelisk, re-erected in 390 AD on a carved marble base.
• The Serpent Column: the bronze stump of a monument set up at Delphi after the Greek victory at Plataea in 479 BC.
• The Walled Obelisk: a rough-stone obelisk once sheathed in gilded bronze plates.

The old ground beneath your feet

Look into the sunken enclosures around the monuments: centuries of debris have raised the square several metres above the Byzantine racetrack. At the southwestern end, on the slope toward the sea, you can still make out walls of the Sphendone, the curved end of the track. On the western side, the 16th-century Palace of Ibrahim Pasha now houses the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts.

The square is lively in the evening, when families stroll and children run between the benches, and during Ramadan it becomes a huge gathering place at sunset. The floodlit monuments with the Blue Mosque behind them make excellent night photos.

Getting there from Sareban Hotel

The Hippodrome is the closest major square to our hotel in Küçük Ayasofya. Walk up the slope past the Sokollu Mehmed Pasha Mosque and you arrive at its southern end, near the Walled Obelisk. From there, stroll north past each monument to the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia. It is also the first leg of our old city walking route from the hotel.