Through the Outer Gardens of the Saray - Strolling Through Istanbul: The Classic Guide to the City - page 86

It is interesting to learn that the Hamam of Haseki Hürrem stands
near the site of the ancient Baths of Zeuxippus, first built by Septimius
Severus in about A.D. 196 and later enlarged by Constantine the
Great. Excavations carried out in this area in the years 1927-8 brought
to light early Byzantine foundations which some scholars have
identified as belonging to this bath, the most celebrated in ancient
Constantinople. These remains, which have since been covered up,
are about midway between Haghia Sophia and the Blue Mosque.
We now leave the square and pass behind the apse of Haghia
Sophia. The street on which we are now walking was known in
Byzantium as the Embolos of the Holy Well. This was a porticoed
way by which the Emperor could walk from the Palace of Chalke to
the Holy Well, which was located at the south-east corner of Haghia
Sophia. From there the Emperor could enter Haghia Sophia, passing
through the large gate which we can still see in the east bay of the
south aisle. The area to the right of this street is now under excavation
by the Archaeological Museum, where extensive remains of the Great
Palace of Byzantium (see Chapter 6) have been unearthed. The site
will soon be open to the public.
Farther along this street, at the north-east corner of the church,
we come to a large Turkish gate in rococo style. This is the back door
to the precincts of Haghia Sophia and leads to a building which was
once the skeuophylakion, or treasury of the church. The building is
not open to the public. To the left is Soğuk Çeşme Sokağı, the Street
of the Cold Fountain, where a row of elegant nineteenth-century
Turkish houses is built up against the outer defence wall of Topkapı
Sarayı. These houses were restored from near ruin in 1984-6 by
the Turkish Touring and Automobile Association (TTAA), headed
by Çelik Gülersoy, and now form the Aysofya Pansoyonlar. One of
the houses is now the library of the Çelik Gülersoy Foundation, an
extraordinary collection of books, maps, engravings and paintings of
Istanbul in Ottoman times.
FOUNTAIN OF AHMET III
We are now in the square before the Imperial Gate of Topkapı Sarayı.
In the centre of this square we see the grandest and most handsome of