Byzantine remains found during restoration of historic Istanbul station

Remains of what archaeologists believe is from a Byzantine coastal town have been found during the restoration works of Istanbul’s Haydarapaşa railway station, which stands on the Asian side of the Bosphorus.

Credit: Hurriyet Daily News

The discovery came a while ago, after a team of about 50 people started to undertake in archaeological excavations on the site under the coordination of the Istanbul Directorate of Archaeology Museums. The works led the team to unearth ancient remains under the railroad tracks, but archaeologists believe the remains are scattered on a much larger scale—over an area of 300 decares.

Haydarpaşa station, designed by two German architects, was inaugurated in its current form in 1909, five years before the outbreak of World War I. It was a symbol of the friendship between the Ottoman Empire and imperial Germany under Kaiser Wilhelm II, who yearned to expand Berlin’s influence deep into the Middle East and had sealed a strong relationship with Sultan Abdulhamid II.

Source: Hurriyet Daily News [July 31, 2019]