Tour Guide, Istanbul, Turkey
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The Hippodrome of Constantinople (Turkish: Sultanahmet Meydanı, Turkish pronunciation: [sulˌtanahˈmet] or Atmeydanı) was acircus that was the sporting and social centre of Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire. Today it is a square namedSultanahmet Meydanı (Sultan Ahmet Square) in the Turkish city of Istanbul, with a few fragments of the original structure surviving.
The word hippodrome comes from the Greek hippos ('ιππος), horse, and dromos (δρομος), path or way. For this reason, it is sometimes also called Atmeydanı ("Horse Square") in Turkish. Horse racing and chariot racing were popular pastimes in the ancient world and hippodromes were common features of Greek cities in the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine eras.