Historic Istanbul water network traces 19 centuries of engineering

ISTANBUL

Istanbul’s ancient 55-km stone aqueduct from Belgrad Forest survives today.

An ancient 55-kilometer water network stretching from the Belgrad Forest in Istanbul’s north to the center survives as a cultural heritage site revealing 19 centuries of Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman engineering.

The earliest documented water facilities took shape under Roman Emperor Hadrian in 117-138 A.D. The infrastructure expanded in the fourth century via lines, including the Bozdoğan Aqueduct, completed under Emperor Valens in 378 A.D. Constantine the Great later brought water via the Istranca mountains and Çatalca district in northwestern Türkiye.

Following the city’s conquest, Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror restored the ruined infrastructure. Historian Tursun Bey noted repairs focused heavily on lines from the Halkalı neighborhood on the European side.

The network peaked in the 16th century with the Kırkçeşme Water System, designed by architect Mimar Sinan under Süleyman the Magnificent. Traveler Evliya Çelebi wrote the sultan vowed to fund the project even if coin bags were laid side by side.

The system supplied 17,500 cubic meters of water daily, eventually reaching 30,000 cubic meters. It featured 33 aqueducts and deep galleries with control chimneys at 20 to 40-meter intervals.

Water accumulated in the Valide, Topuzlu, Kirazlı and Sultan Mahmud dams in the Belgrad Forest. The eastern branch collected the Kirazlı, Topuzlu and Paşa streams, while the western branch gathered the Ayvat, Orta and Bakraç streams.

The flow converged south of Kemerburgaz at the 14-meter-deep Başhavuz pool, which Sinan described as deep as the Galata Tower. Rested water crossed the 36-meter-high, 250-meter-long, two-story Mağlova Aqueduct, alongside Uzunkemer, Güzelcekemer and Paşakemeri.

Pipes and balance towers on the Şehzade Mosque wall regulated pressure to maintain quality. Hubs like Eğrikapı Maksemi and the octagonal Taksim Maksemi, completed under Mahmud I, divided flow for more than 30 fountains, giving the central Taksim district its name.

“The Mağlova Aqueduct is for water architecture what the Selimiye Mosque is for centrally planned mosques. Ottoman engineers surpassed Roman levels,” Istanbul Medeniyet University Faculty of Letters Art History Department Professor Kadir Pektaş told state-run Anadolu Agency.

Pektaş proposed transforming the historic network, stretching to the Kağıthane Valley on the European side, into a tourism route, urging the reconstruction of original Kırkçeşme fountains dismantled in the 1940s during Atatürk Boulevard road works.