Hagia Sophia

Easily one of the 10 most magnificent buildings on earth. It is so tremendous that it’s worth coming to Istanbul just to see it. Of course there is a lot more to see and do in Istanbul than this, but this was the only site we returned to on our encore trip to Istanbul.

It has history. Built in 537 as the patriarchal cathedral of the imperial capital of Constantinople, it was the largest Christian church of the eastern Roman Empire (the Byzantine Empire) and the Eastern Orthodox Church, except during the Latin Empire from 1204 to 1261, when it became the city’s Latin Catholic cathedral.

In 1453, after the Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire, it was converted into a mosque. In 1935, under the direction of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the secular Republic of Turkey established it as a museum. In 2020, under the direction of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, it re-opened as a mosque.

More than ten thousand people were employed during the construction process. It has survived earthquakes, fires, pillaging, emporers, sultans, popes, wars, sieges, plagues, and renovations and rebuilding and continues to be awe-inspiring.

It is Istanbul’s most visited site even 1,500 years after it was built.

It remained the world’s largest cathedral for nearly a thousand years, until Seville Cathedral was completed in 1520.

It is really difficult not to take a good picture inside it.

Now that it has been turned into mosque there is no fee to enter. But because it is now a mosque, you must be respectful. No shoes, no shorts, women must wear a head covering.

Just a couple more.

And this.

And finally.