Beirut Hippodrome of Lebanese Heritage (APLH), the court suspended on May 31, 2012 the Culture Ministry's decision, N˚ 849, to dismantle the Roman Hippodrome that would have allowed for the construction of a building project on the site. The site is protected for now. The current Beirut Hippodrome, officially called Hippodrome du parc de Beyrouth, is a horse-racing facility in Beirut's Horsh district adjacent to Badaro. In 1893 the “al-Marmah” hippodrome was founded, in the town of Bir Hassan. Wealthy Beirutis wished to create a club-complex that included a western style hippodrome and casino. In 1916, the wali of Beirut Azmi Bey,
Hippodrome of Constantinople Fountain"), an octagonal domed fountain in neo-Byzantine style, which was constructed by the German government in 1900 to mark the German Emperor Wilhelm II's visit to Istanbul in 1898, is located at the northern entrance to the Hippodrome area, right in front of the Blue Mosque. Sir Charles Newton, the English archaeologist who excavated Halikarnassos and Knidos, in 1855 excavated the one surviving jaw of a snake from the Serpent Column. The Hippodrome was excavated by the Director of the Istanbul Archeological Museums, archeologist Rüstem Duyuran in 1950 and 1951. A portion of the substructures of the "Sphendone" (the curved