Serpent Column

This bronze spiral originally stood at the sanctuary of Delphi in Greece, cast from the melted weapons of the Persians defeated at the battle of Plataea in 479 BC. Brought to Constantinople by Constantine the Great, it once rose as three intertwined serpents supporting a golden tripod, though the heads have long since been lost. What remains is a weathered green coil sunk below the modern ground level of the Hippodrome. As one of the oldest Greek monuments to survive here, it links Istanbul directly to the ancient classical world.