The mosaic in Hagia Sophia I most wanted to see was that of the Blessed Virgin which is upstairs where our tour guide did not go. The Smithsonian magazine had used this as the cover picture of its December article on the church.

When the Moslems took over the church in the 15th century, the Sultan allowed several mosaics to remain, including one of the Virgin Mary and some angels whom he regarded as guardians of the city.

One of the mosaics in the entrance hall shows Leo the wise on knees before Christ. I think Leo proved to be not so wise in his marriages and is probably begging Jesus for an annulment.

In the glory days of Hagia Sophia, the Byzantine emperors from the 7th to the 14th centuries were all crowned at this spot on the floor marked with a series of inlaid rings.

When it was turned into a mosque this pulpit was erected on the right side of the sanctuary. The interesting thing about the pulpit is that the mullah does not ascend to the top to preach, for the top of the pulpit is reserved for Allah. So the mullah preaches from the stairs leading to the top.

The Basilica looks different from each point of view. This is the main entrance, which faces west and the sea. It was easy enough for the Moslems to turn it into a Mosque since the sanctuary faces the east which happens to also be the direction of Mecca.

This is the north side. Excuse me for artificially coloring some areas to highlight the different architectural areas of the church. You can see from the massive buttresses in the middle one reason the basilica has withstood so many earthquakes.

This is the side of the basilica that faces the city. Four minarets were added during the Moslem occupation. Most mosques have only one, more important ones two. But Hagia Sophia was the ultimate place of worship. This view was taken from the park that separates Hagia Sophia from the Blue Mosque behind it. The Moslems just had to build their own on a equal scale to Hagia Sophia.

The emperor Constantine transferred the capital of his empire in 330 A.D. from Rome to Constantinople. Hagia Sophia was built by the Emperor Justinian. Construction began in 532 and was completed by 537. This great basilica was the crowning architectural achievement of his reign. It amazed me that all mosques in this Moslem country seem to have as their architectural inspiration, this great Christian Basilica. It was the Vatican of the Eastern Churches.

Until the 15th century, no building incorporated a floor space so vast under one roof. Sixth century historian Procopius marveled that it "does not appear to rest upon a solid foundation, but to cover the place beneath as though suspended from heaven by a golden chain."

I had thought that Hagia Sophia’s great Christian mosaics had been destroyed by the iconoclastic Moslems when they turned the church into a mosque in 1453, but historians now say that Justinian’s wife Theodora was iconoclastic, so the original building, in deference to her, probably contained none of its figurative mosaics until the 9th century when the Christian iconoclastic period ended.

At that time Christian artists were commissioned to adorn the church to make up for lost time. Medieval pilgrims were awed by the splendid mosaics of this basilica. Four acres of golden glass cubes --millions of them-- studded the interior to form a glittering canopy overhead, each one set at a subtly different angle to reflect the flicker of candles and oil lamps that illuminated nocturnal ceremonies. Forty thousand pounds of silver encrusted the sanctuary. [Smithsonian, Dec 2008, p. 58]

For more than 900 years, Hagia Sophia was the most important building in the Christian world. It was the cathedral of the Orthodox patriarch, counterpart to the pope in Rome, and the central church of the Byzantine emperors.

It was converted into a mosque by Mehmet the Conqueror in 1453. The Turkish sultan’s armies broke through the great wood and bronze doors, bringing an end to an empire that had endured for over a thousand years. The Sultan's balcony shown here has been restored. with a fresh coat of paint. “For the Byzantines, when Hagia Sophia was converted into a mosque, in the 15th century, it was the end of the world… The story goes that the priests who were saying Mass on that day, disappeared into Hagia Sophia’s walls and would re-emerge someday in a glorious future to reappear, restored to life in a reborn empire. In the meantime, the church stands as a museum, awaiting its rebirth.