The Seventh Hill - Strolling Through Istanbul: The Classic Guide to the City - page 333

revetment. The tiles are still Turkish, not manufactured at Iznik as
formerly, but at the recently established kilns at Tekfur Saray. All the
same, the general impression of the interior is charming if not exactly
powerful. There is a further hint of the new baroque style in one of
its less pleasing traits in some of the capitals of the columns both in
the porch and beneath the sultan's loge. The traditional stalactite and
lozenge capitals have been abandoned there in favour of a very weak
and characterless form, such as an impost capital which seems quite
out of scale and out of place. The whole complex within the precinct
wall has been very completely and very well restored. Outside the
precinct, across the street to the north-east, stands the tekke of the
foundation, but little is left of it save a very ruinous zaviye, or rooms
for the dervish ceremonies.
CHURCH OF THE PANAGHİA GORGOEPİKOOS,
MEDRESE OF NIŞANCI MEHMET BEY
We now walk back to the intersection we passed just before we
reached the mosque. There we turn left into Yaprağı Sokağı, which
after the first intersection becomes Sırrı Paşa Sokağı. Just before the
first turning on the left we come to a Greek church surrounded by
a walled garden. This is the church of the Panaghia Gorgoepikoos,
the Virgin Who Answers Requests Quickly. The church is referred to
as early as 1343, and it is mentioned in Tryphon's list of 1583. The
present building dates from the early nineteenth century.
We turn left at the corner beyond the church, and then after the
next intersection we see on our right the ruins of a once handsome
medrese. It was built by Sinan for Nişancı Mehmet Bey, who served
as Keeper of the Royal Seal (Nişancı) for Süleyman the Magnificent.
The medrese was built before 1566 when Mehmet Bey died on
hearing the news of Süleyman's death.
At the corner beyond the medrese we turn right on Köprülüzade
Sokağı, which after three blocks brings us to the south-west corner of
an enormous open cistern on the summit of the Seventh Hill. This is
the third and largest of the extant Roman reservoirs in the city, that
of St. Mocius, so called from a famous church dedicated to that saint,
a local martyr under Diocletian. It is a rectangle 170 by 147 metres,