Hippodrome of Constantinople

The Hippodrome was the social centre of Constantinople for a thousand years - a racing arena holding tens of thousands, where the chariot factions organised support that spilled well beyond sport, and where emperors appeared before the city from a box connected to the palace. The track itself is gone, buried under the modern square, but the line of the central barrier survives in the shape of Sultanahmet's long open space, and three monuments still stand on it. The Obelisk of Theodosius is Egyptian, cut for Thutmose III around 1450 BCE, brought here in 390 CE and set on a carved Roman base showing the emperor at the races. The Serpent Column is older still as an object: bronze, cast at Delphi in the fifth century BCE, its three intertwined snakes now headless. The Walled Obelisk is a rough masonry pillar once sheathed in bronze. A German fountain from 1900 stands at the northern end.

What you actually see

• The Obelisk of Theodosius - Egyptian granite on a carved Roman base.
• The Serpent Column - the bronze pillar brought from Delphi.
• The Walled Obelisk - the stripped masonry column.
• The square's shape - the arena's outline in the open ground.

When to go

April to June and September to October. Early morning for photographs without crowds - by mid-morning it is the busiest square in the city.

Honest expectations

There is nothing left of the arena itself; the monuments stand in an ordinary paved square, some in sunken enclosures. Interpretation on site is thin. Vendors and touts work the square heavily.

Nearby

The Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia are immediately adjacent; the Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum faces the square.