Turkey is a land of sun, sea, and history.
As being one of the content resources of our Explore Turkey web site the book covers the most important ancient sites of Anatolia. The area now overshadowed by Sultanahmet Mosque was, during the Byzantine period, the scene of horse-racing in the hippodrome. The hippodrome first built by Septimus Severus, and enlarged by Constantinus, was flanked on three sides by tiers of seats for spectators. The hippodrome, which was 118 m. wide and 370 m. long, had high walls. It had a capacity of 100.000 spectators, and had entrances through both of the long walls and also the Antiochus Portal, below the Emperor's Loggia.