Inside the Hagia Sophia Mosque

At one time, the Hagia Sophia Mosque used to be the world’s biggest cathedral. This was the case for more than a thousand years. Over the years, the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantine Empire weakened and the finally Constantinople itself fell to the Ottoman Turks under Mehmet the Conqueror. The world’s largest cathedral, the Hagia Sophia was then converted into a mosque. Even to the Ottoman Turks, the Hagia Sophia was a magnificent structure. It won’t do them any good if they raze the structure to the ground, instead it was converted into a mosque and thus large parts of the structure were preserved.

There were obvious Christian symbols which had to be taken down, and depending on the need, replaced with Islamic versions. Eastern Orthodox Churches tend to have a lot of mosaic in their churches and the Hagia Sophia was no different. The ceiling of the Hagia Sophia was covered in mosaic and it would have been a sight to see. However, mosaic had Christian imagery and thus would have to be removed. Rather than removing them, they were plastered over. So the underlying mosaic is actually still there. There are actually parts of the mosque where they can still be seen. Entering the mosque, you will greeted by a large open space. Looking up you can see where the mosaics would have been. I don’t think it was all Christian imagery here since I can see parts of the ceiling which looks very old. Then again, the entire structure is very old to begin with, It was hard to tell which is which.

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