Dirt Cheap Istanbul

Being located in the very heart of Sultanahmet, the Hagia Sophia is one of the most frequent visited spots in Istanbul. Maybe it is even the spot with the highest percentage of tourists compared to the quantity of Turks. Anyhow, there is no way of you leaving Istanbul without visiting this church turned mosque turned museum.

The Hagia Sophia – meaning holy wisdom – was build as a church by the Byzantine emperor Justinian in 532. The first church (the huge dome crashed 21 years after completion, as a cause of several earthquakes) was erected in only five years and ten month and the dome was even hoisted for another seven meters at its reconstruction. The Hagia Sophia was the religious centre of the Eastern Orthodox Church and the largest cathedral for nearly a thousand years. After the Ottomans conquered the city in 1453, Mehmed II converted it into a mosque and most of the Christian mosaics were plastered over.

After the foundation of the Turkish Republic, Atatürk converted it again, this time into a Museum. Currently there is a big scaffold supporting the dome, but you can still imagine and feel all this space, which makes this old historical building really one of a kind. Take in all the different religious influences, represented by the Islamic mihrab and minbar, the big wooden boards with the names of the eight most holy names of the Islam and all the Christian mosaics that were laid open again.

Why Should I Go
The architecture of the Hagia Sophia with its significant domes served as archetype for the construction of several other mosques in Istanbul, like the Blue Mosque. This is quite exceptional, if you consider that it was build as a church.

Where
Ayasofya Square, Tram (T1) or Bus (210) to Sultanahmet

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