Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom)

Hagia Sophia's complex history began in the year 537 when Byzantine emperor Justinian built the huge church overlooking the Golden Horn harbour

With its huge dome, it was believed to be the world's largest church and building

It remained in Byzantine hands for centuries apart from a brief moment in 1204 when Crusaders raided the city

In 1453, in a devastating blow to the Byzantines, Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II captured Istanbul (formerly known as Constantinople) and the victorious conqueror performed Friday prayers inside Hagia Sophia

The Ottomans soon converted the building into a mosque, adding four minarets to the exterior and covering ornate Christian icons and gold mosaics with panels of Arabic religious calligraphy

After centuries at the heart of the Muslim Ottoman empire, it was turned into a museum in 1934 in a drive to make Turkey more secular

2020 turned back into a Mosque but the Christian emblems, including mosaics of the Virgin Mary which adorn its soaring golden dome, are not removed.
Christianity and Islam mingle here.

Big line up control through the church as well as outsideRead more