This is the first time that I’ve knowingly visited a filming location. And it happened to be the second one of the day, for one of my favourite characters, Bond. James Bond.

We had visited  the Grand Bazaar less than an hour earlier and now we were in the Basilica Cistern. The first one was in the opening scenes of Skyfall, and the latter one in Russia from love. Thinking of this coincidence, I’ve actually walked through more locations in my home town. Bruce Willis was here twenty years ago filming The Jackal, and Michael Caine a lot earlier. Only to mention a couple.

You might not think that a water cistern is all that interesting, but then again this is no ordinary tank. I can’t tell the difference between Dorian and Corinthian columns, but that doesn’t diminish the fact that they are beautiful and you can find examples of both here. And there’s the question of the Medusa heads. Why would anyone want to drag  those to a place where nobody was supposed to see them?

Anyway, one has to be humble when thinking about the mastery of the architecture and the functionality of this cistern.

What does one do after another touristy visit? Coffee and baklava, of course!