The Seventh Hill - Strolling Through Istanbul: The Classic Guide to the City - page 327

MEDRESE OF GEVHER HATUN
Immediately across the street is an interesting medrese which is not
part of Cerrah Mehmet Paşa's foundation. This was built in the second
half of the sixteenth century by Gevher Sultan, daughter of Selim
II and wife of the great admiral Piyale Paşa. This medrese, which
has been restored, has the standard form of a rectangular porticoed
courtyard with cells beyond.
COLUMN OF ARCADİUS
We now continue along Cerrah Paşa Caddesi for another 100 metres
and take the second turning on the right, Haseki Kadın Sokağı. A
short distance up the street on the right we find the shapeless remains
of the Column of Arcadius, wedged tightly between two houses
and as tall as they are; its marble surface is rent and pitted and it
is overgrown with a mantle of ivy. Erected in 402 by the Emperor
Arcadius, the column was decorated with spiral bands of sculpture
in bas relief representing the triumphs of the emperor, like Trajan's
column in Rome. It stood in the centre of an imperial forum called
after Arcadius. At the top of the column, which was more than 50
metres high, there was an enormous Corinthian capital surmounted
by an equestrian statue of Arcadius, placed there in 421 by his son,
Theodosius II. This statue was eventually toppled from the column
and destroyed during an earthquake in 704. The column itself
remained standing for another 1,000 years until it was deliberately
demolished in 1715, when it appeared to be in immanent danger of
collapsing on the neighbouring houses. Now all that remains are the
mutilated base and some fragments of sculpture from the column
which are on display in the Archaeological Museum. It is possible to
enter the interior of the base through a side door in the house to the
left. Once inside the base, we can climb up an interior stairway to the
top of the ruin, where there is still visible a short length of the column
with barely discernible remnants of the sculptured decoration.
COMPLEX OF BAYRAM PAŞA
Leaving the column, we continue on along Haseki Kadın Sokağı to
the end of the street. There we come to the külliye of Bayram Paşa,