Hagia Sophia

The Hagia Sophia is probably Türkiye’s most well known monument. In fact, that was all I knew about the country. I am in the city of Istanbul to visit this UNESCO World Heritage site. The Hagia Sophia was built in the time of Emperor Justinian I to serve as a Christian Church. During the time of the Ottoman Turks, this was converted into a mosque and, centuries later, a museum. You can say that the Hagia Sopha was very influential in the the evolution of Ottoman architecture. The very impressive Sultan Ahmed Mosque which is directly across the it is heavily inspired by the the design of the Hagia Sophia. If I didn’t know any better I would have confused the two with each other. It was only upon visiting each of them that I know which is which.

At the time of my visit, parts of the Hagia Sophia is under renovation. It is a very old structure. Looking at it from the outside, you can still is the cathedral from which it came from. It is good that a lot of the structure was retained. Parts of it have been changed to at least make it look like a mosque: most importantly, the domes and the minarets. It was mid afternoon and it seems that everybody is out despite the heat. Just like the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, there is a queue to get in the Hagia Sopha. Hopefully, it won’t take that long to get in.

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