I am walking down this dark stone staircase down, down, down into the darkness.

There's some atmospheric lighting and the air feels damp and cool.

I start to hear the sound of water suddenly this dark room opens up before me and there

are just rows and rows of white stone columns reaching up into the ceiling.

And out of the corner of my eye, I suddenly see this sparkle, this flitting motion that

I quickly realize a fish swimming in the water at our feet.

And it's a feeling almost like stepping into like a sunken ship.

There is a feeling of ruin but also elegance and it's really quite, quite magical.

As I'm walking through, it becomes clear that there are these really strange faces in

the distance.

And as I get closer, low and behold, I am confronted with none other than Medusa, the monstrous

demigodis of Greek mythology.

I'm Dylan Therese and this is Al-Subsghira, a celebration of the world's strange, incredible

and wondrous places.

Today we're talking with Pam Grossman who went down under the streets of Istanbul-Turkey

to meet Medusa and who's never forgotten the encounter.

More, after this.

So, this place is called the Basilica Sistern.

The Basilica Sistern was this huge water storage tank, built in Istanbul around 532 AD.

It was commissioned by the Emperor Justinian and the reason it was built is there was this

big cherry a race at the time and it was highly contested who actually won the race.

People were so pissed off, they started to riot and it's a little like the Philadelphia

...