THE HIPPODROME IN OTTOMAN TIMES
A 16th century illustration in the Freshfield Album in Trinity College Library at Cambridge University depicts the hippodrome with all the realism of a photograph. It shows the three monuments that are still standing there today, and behind them a building which must have been one of the vezir’s palaces that stood where Sultanahmet Mosque is today. To the left of Haghia Sophia is a large red building of which no trace now remains. This was the magnificent Zeuksippos Bath built in Roman times, and named after the Temple of Zeus which stood next to it. Inside this building were statues of philosophers, poets and soldiers.
In Istanbul University Library there is another miniature dating from the reign of Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent showing the hippodrome in detail. At the bottom of the picture is Ibrahim Pasa Palace, which has a tower with a conical cap. During festivals and ceremonies the sultan, his ministers and foreign guests would watch the spectacles from the balconies of this palace.