Column of Constantine in Fatih

You're standing at the Column of Constantine, known in Turkish as Çemberlitaş. It's the oldest monument of Emperor Constantine the Great still standing in Istanbul. Look up along those dark red stones. That's porphyry, a precious kind of rock. The column is made of huge drums stacked on top of each other and held together by metal bands. Those bands gave it its Turkish name: Çemberlitaş means the hooped stone.