Friday, August 26, 2005

ContraCostaTimes.com- Construction of subway line may leave remnants in ruins

"Construction of subway line may leave remnants in ruins

By Mark Landler

NEW YORK TIMES

ISTANBUL, Turkey - The dusty pit next to the governor's office here looks like any other archaeological dig. Workers chip away gingerly at a half-buried stone wall, carting off the crumbling bricks in a wheelbarrow.

The walls were originally the cellars of houses built 50 to 70 years ago in the early years of the Turkish Republic.

Beneath them, archaeologists have uncovered a staircase dating from the late Ottoman Empire, perhaps a century or two old. And lurking beneath that is a genuine treasure: a stone arch that forms part of a cistern from the late-Byzantine period, which ended in 1453."

More:ContraCostaTimes.com | 08/26/2005 | Construction of subway line may leave remnants in ruins