Myrelaion (Bodrum Mosque) Cistern
 
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Myrelaion (Bodrum Mosque) Cistern

The building beside the Bodrum (Myrelaion) Mosque, which has a central plan and dates from Roman times, was turned into a cistern during the Byzantine era and is known as the Bordum Mosque Cistern.

The external diameter of the building is 30 m, and the thickness of the walls is about 5 m. Four circular niches on the inside are separated from each other by two rectangular niches placed opposite each other. The plan, altough it has its own original features, resembles, in particular, those of the Pantheon in Rome and the Galerius Mausoleum in Salonica.

In Byzantine times, it was turned into a cistern by the addition of disparate columns. Considering the part dome- part transverse vaulting dating from Byzantine times which covers it, various reasearches suggest that this may have been the foundation for the 10th century palace of Romanus I Lecapenus.

During the work of cleaning carried out in 1965, bits and pieces from Byzantine and Ottoman times were found among the debris. The most important of these was a piece found to belong to a porphyry statue. The archaeologist Nezih Firatli declared this to be the part broken off from the group statue of the "Tetrarchs" now in the southwest corner of St. Mark's Basilica in Venice. Measurements confirmed this assertation and thus it was established for sure that the statue of the Tetrarchs had been carried off from Istanbul. Until this find came to light, it had been supposed that the group aforementioned had been takento Venice from the city of Acra in Palestine. Following the restoration of 1992, the cistern once more became a marketplace.

Resource :  Semavi Eyice; "Bodrum Camii Sarnici", Dunden Bugune Istanbul Ansiklopedisi" Vol. 2, p. 264, Istanbul 1994.
Rudolf Naumann; "Ausgrabungen bei der Bodrum Camii (Myrelaion)", Annual of the Archaeological Museum of Istanbul, 13-14, Istanbul 1966.
 
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