The obelisk of Theodosius I at At Meydanı square (site of the Byzantine Hippodrome)

Description

Featured in the 1836 collaborative work of Thomas Allom and Robert Walsh, this steel engraving depicts Atmeydanı (the ancient Hippodrome), the millennia-old public and political heart of Istanbul. The composition masterfully brings together the magnificent Obelisk of Theodosius, brought from Ancient Egypt, in the foreground, and the monumental Sultan Ahmed Mosque rising to the sky with its six minarets in the background. The equestrian and socializing figures in the square present a living historical tableau of how ancient heritage intertwined with Ottoman civic and religious architecture.