Koh Lanta Old Town, located on Koh Lanta’s East coast, was once the island’s main port for trade. Now Lanta Old Town is a charming place to visit which looks and feels like it’s stood still in time.
Lanta Old Town was originally a sea gypsy settlement. Over the decades it transformed into a village influenced by trade. Now you can enjoy many shops, restaurants and homes built on stilts above the sea. This is great when the tide is in and also overlooks other islands and the mainland allowing amazing views.
The Old Town has a distinct Chinese influence and a very slow, laid back feel. Walking around looking at the lanterns gives you a sense of days gone by. While still a fishing village for the locals, much of Old Town’s trade now comes through tourism with gift shops selling local goods.
Lanta Old Town also has a museum which traces back the life and times of Koh Lanta. The museum is free to enter and is ran by the locals as a way to showcase the 3 distinct communities that have...
The Binbirdirek Cistern (Turkish: Binbirdirek Sarnıcı, also known as the Cistern of Philoxenos), located in Istanbul’s historic Sultanahmet district, is the city’s second-largest covered Byzantine cistern after the Basilica Cistern.
This subterranean reservoir, part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site “Historic Areas of Istanbul” (inscribed 1985), once stored up to 40,000 cubic meters of water supplied by the Aqueduct of Valens, serving public and imperial needs during Constantinople’s peak.
With its 224 marble columns (earning the poetic name “Thousand and One Columns”), it offers a quieter, less crowded alternative to the more famous Basilica Cistern, blending atmospheric beauty with profound historical depth.
Historical Significance
Likely built in the 4th century by Roman senator Philoxenos under Emperor Constantine I, or expanded in the 5th–6th century during Justinian I’s reign, it functioned as a castellum divisorium—a distribution point for water from the Aqueduct of Valens ...
The Blue Mosque, officially the Sultan Ahmed Mosque (Turkish: Sultan Ahmet Camii), is an iconic 17th-century Ottoman mosque in Istanbul’s Sultanahmet district. Renowned for its stunning blue Iznik tiles and six slender minarets, it’s a UNESCO World Heritage site within Istanbul’s Historic Areas.
It remains an active mosque, drawing worshippers and tourists for its architectural grandeur and historical significance.
Commissioned by Sultan Ahmed I (1603–1617), it was built between 1609 and 1616 by architect Sedefkâr Mehmed Ağa, a student of Mimar Sinan. Intended to rival Hagia Sophia (directly opposite), it symbolized Ottoman power and piety after military setbacks.
The mosque sparked controversy for its six minarets, equaling Mecca’s Masjid al-Haram, resolved by adding a seventh minaret to Mecca.
Completed just before Ahmed I’s death at age 27, it has since been a centerpiece of Istanbul’s skyline. Restorations in the 19th and 21st centuries preserved its ornate interiors.
The mosque ...
The Aqueduct of Valens (Turkish: Valens Su Kemeri or Bozdoğan Kemeri, meaning “Aqueduct of the Grey Falcon”) is a remarkable Roman engineering feat and one of Istanbul’s most iconic ancient landmarks.
Built in the 4th century AD, it formed a key part of a vast water supply system that sustained Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul) for over a millennium. Spanning a valley in the city’s historic peninsula, it exemplifies Roman hydraulic ingenuity, with its robust limestone arches still standing tall amid urban bustle.
Construction began under Emperor Constantius II around 345 AD, but it was completed in 373 AD by Emperor Valens, after whom it is named. This was just five years before Valens’ defeat at the Battle of Adrianople in 378 AD, which exposed Thrace to invasions. The aqueduct addressed the growing water demands of Constantinople, founded by Constantine the Great in 330 AD, which had outgrown earlier systems from the Hadrian era (117–138 AD).
The full system stretched up to 268 ...