The Column of Constantine was once one of the most important monuments in Byzantine Constantinople. It is also virtually the only remaining trace of the city’s founder, Constantine. While it is now only a stump of its former self, it originally served as the base for a gigantic statue of Constantine in the grand circular forum of his newly founded city. Erected by Constantine after becoming sole emperor in 324, it occupied a central place in the history of Constantinople for many centuries. 
The Column of Constantine was at the heart of Constantinople. It had a central location in Constantinople, standing along the Mese, the city’s main street, in the middle of the city’s main forum, the circular Forum of Constantine. Being located at the top of the second highest hill of the peninsula, the column was visible from many vantage distant points. Furthermore it played a role in imperial ideology as it was on the route of the triumphal procession, which started at the Golden Gate and ended at the Great Palace complex. The column and its statue became a major symbol of Constantinople, as it is depicted in the Tabula Peutingeriana, an ancient Roman map dating perhaps to the 4th century. 
The column was erected when Constantine expanded Byzantium through a series of major construction works between the years 324 and 330. It is made Egyptian porphyry, which was a highly prized imperial purple stone reserved exclusively for members of the imperial family by the 4th century. While it is now almost 35 meters tall, it might have been around 37 meters tall or even taller. It consists of several cylindrical blocks or drums joined together by a hoop imitating a laurel crown that hid the joints. Six drums are visible today, but originally there seems to have been seven drums. One of them is now walled up in the base, which was added to reinforce the column after fire in 1779. Its Turkish name, Çemberlitaş (“ringed stone”), refers to the metal hoops added in the 16th century to stabilize the column due to the threat of earthquakes. A drawing from the Freshfield Album (1574) depicts the platform with a series of steps topped by a pedestal, while another drawing by Melchior Lorick (1561) seems to depict the pedestal with figurative decoration. Excavations in 1929-1930 exposed the steps below the column and provided access to the original pedestal and determined its dimensions. 
During the reign of Alexius I Comnenus, the statue of Constantine was knocked to the ground by a violent wind in 1106, causing casualties. It seems that it originally had a Corinthian capital, but this was damaged when the statue fell. It was subsequently repaired by Manuel I Comnenus (1143–1180) and topped with a cross. The emperor also had a commemorative inscription placed under the column, reading: Manuel, the pious ruler, restored this God’s work destroyed by time. The cross was likely removed when the Ottomans captured the city in 1453. 
It was also one of the many talismans listed by Evliya Çelebi in the Ottoman era. According to his account, it was built 140 years before the era of Alexander the Great and Constantine placed a talisman on it in the form of starling. Once a year, it flapped its wings and “brought all the birds in the air to the place, each with three olives in his beak and talons”.