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Hagiasma and Floor Mosaic at Amiral Tafdil Street
Hagiasma at Amiral Tadfil Street.jpg

This archaeological site, located on Amiral Tafdil Street in Cankurtaran, was excavated in 1997-98 by the Istanbul Archaeological Museums. It consists of two contiguous levels: the upper level consists of a floor mosaic, while the lower level consists of a barrel chamber and an hagiasma (holy spring).

The first level of the site, which is one floor below the current street level, has ruins of a structure and a floor mosaic. The floor mosaic dates to the 5th or 6th century and might have belonged to a palace within the vicinity of the Great Palace of Constantinople. The vaulted chamber seems to date to the 11th or 12th century. Underneath the floor mosaic is a barrel vaulted substructure into which a niche was built. The niche fronted by an unadorned marble slab and has a small pool of water with a lunette decorated with a fresco of the Theotokos Orans. She holds the Christ Child, though the image of Christ is now difficult to see. Around the image is an inscription that is now illegible. The excavator suggested that the hagiasma might have belonged to the Nea Ekklesia or the Hodegon Monastery. However the Hodegon Monastery seems to have been further east, closer to another site often associated with the Hodegon Monastery. Its masonry also seems to belong to a later date than the Nea Ekklesia, which was built by Basil in the 10th century.

Hagiasma at Amiral Tadfil Street.jpg
Floor Mosaic at Amiral Tadfil Street.jpg
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