Hagia Sofya (or Haghia Sophia)

This is a largely pictorial posting of one of the world's truly great buildings. The name means Divine Wisdom and it was dedicated by the Emperor Justinian on 26 December AD537 - a century after the fall of Rome and the transfer of power to Byzantium (aka Istanbul).

It started life as a Christian Cathedral and then became an Ottoman Mosque about 800 years later on. It is now a museum on a spectacular scale. So we have here a massive structure which shows advanced engineering capability on the part of the Romans and is a cross between two of the world's main religions. The Ottomans simply took the existing structure and revised it to their needs ... as is shown in some of the photos. Let us start with an outside view showing Bec and Max gazing at the structure and a close-up exterior view.

The next three pictures show the awesome interior bulk of the building from ground level

Then I show some of the details of decorations: an angel (no need for Islam to erase this); and two shots of ceiling decorations. The last is clearly Islamic.

The next three pictures show Islamic additions - a kind of pulpit and some Arabic script adorning the walls.

Perhaps clearer than the ground level pictures, the last two convey the immensity of the structure. Fancy building this 1500 years ago!

AS