Mystery structure! This incomprehensible, windowless stone "building" sits silently among modern apartment buildings in the Acibadem district of Istanbul.
No one I know seems to have any clue about what this building is, how old it is, or who built it. (Postsrcipt: Not anymore, the building is almost certainly a "water balance"- read below.) It is quite old, perhaps Ottoman or even Byzantine from the looks of it. Pieces of even older buildings stand out among the mystery structure's walls, suggesting that its stonework has been scavenged from ruined masonry. It has been neglected for quite some time, and now has trees growing from its top.
Some residents say that this place is the tomb of some "holy man," but it is just too large and strongly built to be a tomb in my opinion. My guess is this thing is either part of an old wall, or one of the "fire towers" used to watch out for potential fires in Ottoman times. My guess, of course, is as good as any other.Do you know what this structure is, or might be? Please let us know in the comments.
UPDATE!
Many of my on-line viewers pointed out that this structure was actually a Byzantine "water balance", a tower that maintained even water flow and pressure across the aqueducts that carried water to Chalcedon, now known as Kadikoy. Thanks for the help!
