Serpent Column, Bronze monument at Sultanahmet Square, Istanbul, Turkey.
The Serpent Column is a bronze monument made of three intertwined snakes positioned in the ancient Hippodrome of Constantinople. The inscribed names of participating city-states run along its shaft as part of the World Heritage site.
The column was originally created as an offering in Delphi following a military victory against the Persian Empire. It was later moved to Constantinople and placed in the Hippodrome, where it has stood for centuries.
The names of the 31 Greek city-states that fought at Plataea were cut into the coils after Pausanias' own dedicatory inscription was removed by the Spartans. The letters, in the Laconian alphabet, begin on the 13th coil and run upward to the 2nd, on the face turned toward the Sultanahmet Mosque, where they can still be read today.
The monument stands outdoors in the Hippodrome area and is accessible year-round without restrictions. The ground is flat and easy to walk around, allowing you to explore it at your own pace alongside other nearby ruins.
One of the original serpent heads was separated from the column and now resides in Istanbul's Archaeological Museum. This separation happened centuries ago and tells its own story about how the monument changed over time.
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