Hagia Sophia visit

The Hagia Sophia is almost 1500 years old.  It was originally built as a cathedral and was the largest catherdral for over 1000 years.  It became a mosque in 1453 when the Ottoman sultans conquered the Byzantine Empire and is now a museum.  There are no exhibits in it.  The building itself is the museum.

The dome is 108 feet across and 180 feet from the floor of the building.  It was constructed in just 6 six years (Notre dame took over 100).  The original dome collapsed after 20 years, but was rebuilt and has lasted ever since.  There are 40 windows around the top of the dome.  No steel has been used in its construction.  

The exterior of the Hagia Sophia.   You can see the massive butresses on the lower left side that were added after the original construction to keep it stable from the many earthquakes that happen in Istanbul.

Hello Kitty travel bug visits the Hagia Sophia...I need to log this visit for her.

Interior of the Hagia Sophia as viewed from the second level.  It is undergoing massive renovation and is in desperate need of restoration.  There is a massive scaffolding just to the left of the picture frame.  The large round caliphs are on the walls midway up.  They are the largest caliphs in the world and are for the 4 Islamic leaders who came after Mohammed's death.

This massive bronze door predates the Hagia Sophia by about 200 years.  It originally came from Taursus.

This is a tile mosaic of Jesus, John the Baptist and Mary.  You can see how it originally looked in the painting below.  There is not a lot of the original left.  When the Ottomans turned the cathedral into a mosque they plastered over all of the mosaics.  They have slowly been uncovered over the years, but vandals have taken pieces of them leaving them in poor condition.  There are places where mosaics were added in the images of the Sultans who gave money to the mosque.  Once the mosaic was made, the body was kept intact, but the face on the image was changed for each successive Sultan.

You can see the damage to the plaster on the ceiling of the dome.  The high humidity damages it badly.

Here is a place where the plaster has been removed, revealing the mosaic tiles underneath.

This is a close up of the tiles on the robe of this saint pictured in full below.

The chandeliers are originals and were once oil lamps with the oil in the glass bulbs.

Four massive pillars support the dome of the Hagia Sophia.  At the base of these pillars are the four arch angels:  Uriel, Raphael, Gabriel and Michael.  The Sultan had the faces removed and covered with stylized triangles (above).  The faces are slowly being restored (below).

Coronation place for Byzantine Emperors.

This mosaic of the Virgin Mary is 13 ft tall in the entrance.