Istanbul's Hidden Byzantine Ruins [9:34]

YouTube ^ | August 15, 2026 | toldinstone

[SunkenCiv]

This video explores some of the Byzantine ruins hidden beneath the streets of modern Istanbul. I'd like to thank the management of the Ring Stone Hotel and Alp Watmough for making my filming possible. 

YT Summary: toldinstone explores the architectural palimpsest of Sultan Ahmed, tracing remnants of the Great Palace of the Byzantine emperors hidden within modern structures. From repurposed cisterns and sarcophagi to surviving ramp towers, the narrative uncovers how historical layers continue to shape the fabric of daily life in contemporary Istanbul. 

Istanbul's Hidden Byzantine Ruins | 9:34 
toldinstone | 645K subscribers | 19,389 views | August 15, 2026

[SunkenCiv]

Chapters 
0:00 Introduction 
0:34 "Four Eras" building 
1:24 Great Palace ruins 
2:29 Magnaura Palace 
4:02 Kinzer Coins 
4:50 Sphendone of the Hippodrome 
5:42 Little Hagia Sophia 
6:54 Porphyry sarcophagus 
7:23 Ring Stone cistern

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YouTube transcript reformatted at textformatter.ai *may* follow.

[SunkenCiv]

The weekly digest list of topics will show up somewhere down below.

[Nateman]

Islam: turning great Civilizations into s*holes since 666 AD.

[BradyLS]

With the split of the Roman Empire into Western and Eastern halves, the Eastern half centered on Constantinople lasted about 1000 years. Before the Islamic Ottomans finally finished it in 1453, it was sacked by a Crusader army of the Fourth Crusade almost 250 years in 1204.

[SunkenCiv]

Thx. They sacked it 250 years?

[BradyLS]

Good catch. Should be “…250 years _earlier_ in 1204.”

[SunkenCiv]

When that event is brought up, it is often just a way to equate the destruction of the Byzantine polity by muzzie savages with a one-time difference of opinion.

[SunkenCiv]

[BradyLS]

A difference of opinion? That makes the fiasco even more tragic. When Islam advances, look for the unforced errors preceding it.

[The Truth Will Make You Free]

I know about and have seen the Little Hagia Sophia and the curved end of the Hippodrome.

Didn't know about the house of 4 eras though.

[vikingd00d]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0XlO39kCQ-8

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks!

[SunkenCiv]

It makes the ‘fiasco’ even less relevant.

[SunkenCiv]

There’s an anecdote, possibly apochryphal, that when Justinian first entered the Hagia Sophia, he fell to his knees and exclaimed, “I have surpassed you, O Solomon!”.

[SunkenCiv]

The other GGG topics added since the previous digest ping, alpha:

• Alexandria - The City of Sciences [Free with ads] [52:22] [08/11/2026]
• American History Is Too Important for Trigger Warnings [08/15/2026]
• Archaeologists Baffled After Man Stumbles Upon 2,700-Year-Old Bronze Sword Standing Upright in Forest [08/11/2026]
• Bataan Death March survivor, WWII POW now 105 years old [08/15/2026]
• Belgium Construction Crew Unearths $10 Million in Hidden Gold While Laying Sewer Pipe [08/15/2026]
• Celebrated Rutland mosaic depicts 'long-lost' Troy story connecting Roman Britain to the ancient classical world [08/11/2026]
• Drought-hit Tiber River exposes ancient ruins of Nero's Bridge in Rome [08/15/2026]
• The Forgotten Battle of the Tappan Zee. Commemorating the Battle's 250th Anniversary [08/14/2026]
• How the sinking of a Second World War ship led to one of the UK's last witch trials [08/12/2026]
• 'I was screaming': Scientists shocked as dolphins filmed using shells to trap prey for the first time [08/15/2026]
• The Mysterious Tombs of Xanthos [8:44] [08/10/2026]
• New Discovery at Gobeklitepe Points to 10,000-Year-Old Homes [08/13/2026]
• Roman shipwreck with hundreds of amphorae found off Sicily [08/11/2026]
• Sardinia: A monumental Tomb of the Giants Discovered Near Macomer [08/15/2026]
• Tucker's Cross: The Man Behind its Discovery, and its Unusual disappearance [08/10/2026]
• WWII: The Last Day [20:41] [08/14/2026]

[SunkenCiv]

(nice generated landscapes and "Romans"; watching with the sound down turns out to be better :^)

Walking Through Constantinople At Its Peak: 
What Would You Have Seen? | 13:26 
Maiorianus | 147K subscribers | 363,612 views | February 17, 2026

[The Truth Will Make You Free]

There’s an anecdote, possibly apochryphal, that when Justinian first entered the Hagia Sophia, he fell to his knees and exclaimed, “I have surpassed you, O Solomon!”.

I hadn’t heard that one. There are Christian mutuals under whitewash that were being revealed when I first toured it as a museum around 2000. We decided not to visit it in 2023 due to the long line, high cost, limited time, and that it’s been reconverted to a mosque requiring shoes off, etc.