Once one of  the most important institutions of the city, today only a few  vestiges of the Byzantine chariot racecourse are visible--the  monuments of the spina (the middle barrier of the racecourse)now  sit in holes in a landscaped garden, as the ground level has risen  at least six feet. A portion of the substructures of the sphendone (the curved end) is now more visible with the clearing of houses in  the area to the south. Except for a limited excavation earlier this  century, there has been no organized examination of the Hippodrome. However,  in 1993 an area in fromt of Sultanahment Camii (the Blue Mosque) was  bulldozed in order to install a new toilet. By the time the operation  was completed, they had removed two meters of dirt, as well as  several rows of seats and a few columnsfrom  the Byzantine Hippodrome. Investigation did not continue further,  althought the line of the seating, their opus  caementicium substructure, and some clay pipes were left visible for some time.  The columns and marble seats are now dispersed around the gardens of  Sultanahmet. Curiously, a few columns are emblazoned with a  pi-lambda, perhaps the monogram ofthe Paliologus family.