page_title: Hippodrome of Constantinople
section_title: Hippodrome monuments
hierarchical_section_title: Hippodrome of Constantinople / Hippodrome monuments
caption_attribution_description: So-called "Snake column" or "Serpents column" that used to be in the centre of the Hippodrome in Constantinople. Originally it had three heads and came from Delphi, one of the heads is in the Istanbul museum today.
context_page_description: The Hippodrome of Constantinople was a circus that was the sporting and social centre of Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire. Today it is a square named Sultanahmet Meydanı in the Turkish city of Istanbul, with a few fragments of the original structure surviving.
  The word hippodrome comes from the Greek hippos, horse, and dromos, path or way. For this reason, it is sometimes also called Atmeydanı in Turkish. Horse racing and chariot racing were popular pastimes in the ancient world and hippodromes were common features of Greek cities in the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine eras.
caption: The Serpent Column (front) with the Obelisk of Theodosius (back)
exif: {}