On Byzantine Grounds

Today's enrty features the remains of the Hippodrome, which was the huge elliptical stadium on the map below.
In AD 195, Roman Emporor, Septimius Severus destroyed Byzantium but later rebuilt it, laying out the Hippodrome.
Emperor Constantine (324 AD-337AD) enlarged the Hippodrome, and it was thought the stadium held about 100,000 people. The most popular entertainment of the time was chariot racing.

One of the impressive buildings facing the public garden of what used to be the stadium is a museum.

The spina, the central line of the stadium was adorned by obelisks and columns from ancient Egypt and Greece, importing a sense of history to the new capital. The famous forur bronze horses atop a column, that were taken to Venice by Doge Dandolo during the Fourth Crusade in 1203 AD, used to adorne the stadium.

The Serpentine Column was shipped here from Delphi and is believed to date from 479 BC.The heads of the serpents were knocked off in the 18th century by a drunken Polish nobleman. (Source of this and all other info referred here from Eyewittness Travel Guide: Istanbul,1998)

The Egyptian Obelisk below dates back to 1500 BC and used to stand outside Luxor. Constantine had it brought to his city.
The base of the obelisk was made in the 4th century AD and features Theosodius I and his family in the kathisma (royal box) watching various events.

At the far end there is a relatively new addition to the park: a fountain. This was a gift of the German Emperor, Wilhelm II to commemorate his second visit out of the three to Istanbul in 1898 and it was built as a present to Sultan Abdulhamit II in 1901.

The ceiling of the fountain has neo byzantine mosaic decorations.

Just some buildings alongside the park that caught my eye.

What a truly mind boggling place, if you just come to think of it.