Back in the day the Turks stored water in large underground cisterns. There are several hundred cisterns in Istanbul underneath buildings that you can wander around in today (they don't store water anymore so you can just hang out in them). The largest one was built in the 6th century AD on the site of an old cathedral and the water was used by the Great Palace of Constantinople (which no longer exists) and that is what the pictures below are from. Water is kept in it so you get a feel for what it used to look like but it's not used for anything and it's replaced all the time so it doesn't smell.
This cathedral-size cistern is an underground chamber approximately 138 metres (453 ft) by 64.6 metres (212 ft) - about 9,800 square metres (105,000 sq ft) in area - capable of holding 80,000 cubic metres (2,800,000 cu ft) of water. The ceiling is supported by a forest of 336 marble columns, each 9 metres (30 ft) high, arranged in 12 rows of 28 columns each spaced 4.9 metres (16 ft) apart.
It's kind of spooky:
There are two Medusa heads that were brought in to be used in the columns. They have to be sideways or upside down so you can't look her in the eyes and turn to store:
And there were lots of big fish down there too:
FYI, the cistern was used as a location for the 1963 James Bond film From Russia with Love.
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