The Byzantine Urinal of Istanbul - Myth, History or Something in Between?
- Martin
- 22 hours ago
- 2 min read
A narrow alley behind the Sokollu Mehmed Pasha Mosque in Fatih has long been the subject of an unusual story. According to local lore, it was once a Byzantine urinal. But how much of the tale is history, and how much is myth?
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There are certain stories in Istanbul that never seem to disappear. One of them concerns the small Şht. Çeşmesi Sokak behind the Sokollu Mehmed Pasha Mosque in Fatih.
According to the story, the alley once served as a Byzantine urinal or toilet area.
It is exactly the kind of tale that makes people stop, laugh for a moment, and immediately pass it on to someone else.
And, honestly, an ancient toilet is often more interesting than yet another story about a fountain, a drain, or a piece of Byzantine infrastructure.
But the more I tried to investigate the story, the less certain I became.
Not because I found evidence proving it was true.
But neither did I find anything that definitively disproved it.
The alley sits on the slope between the ancient Hippodrome and the Sea of Marmara. Beneath the surrounding streets lie the remains of Byzantine Constantinople - cisterns, cellars, walls and other structures belonging to a city that has yet to reveal all of its secrets.
So perhaps the story began with an old drain, a sanitation system, or something else entirely.
Perhaps not.
Whether the story is true, I still do not know. But that may be part of Istanbul’s charm. Sometimes the search for an answer turns out to be more interesting than the answer itself.
