Archaeologists excavating beneath the ruins of an early Christian church have unearthed underground rooms and a tunnel from 1,500 years ago in the oldest part of Istanbul — once Constantinople ...

Archaeologists in Istanbul have discovered the remains of underground rooms and a tunnel while excavating the ruins of an early Christian church. The rooms appear to be around 1,500 years old when ...

The ruins are from the sixth-century church of St. Polyeuctus, which was one of the largest in Constantinople — as Istanbul was called before its conquest by Ottoman Turks in 1453.

Believed to be more than 1,500 years old from the Byzantine Empire, the ruins were found in Maarat al-Numan in Idlib province, located on the route between the cities of Aleppo and Damascus.