Hagia Sophia is a historic cathedral and former mosque and now a museum located in Istanbul, specifically in the area of Sultanahmet.
Began Emperor Justinian Justinianos in building the Church of Hagia Sophia in 532 AD, and took it for about five years where he was officially opened in 537 AD and remained used as a church for 916 years and then was converted into a mosque by order of Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror in the same day of the conquest of Constantinople in May 1453 AD Added where her platform and minaret of wood advisory opinion of Shaykh al-Islam and al-Ifta scientists in the Ottoman Empire and remained so for a period of 481 years.
When the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the establishment of the modern Turkish state turned into a museum in 1935 and remained so until today to prepare for the site Hagia Sophia Museum attracts visitors and tourists from different parts of the world.
The construction of the church of Hagia Sophia basilica-style vaulted domed Basilica, which takes the form of a rectangle with a length of 76 meters from east to west and 72 meters from north to south.
Located domed grand above the center of the building rises from the ground between 60 and 55 meters, and the dimensions of diameters 87 and 30 meters between the East and the West, and 87 and 31 meters between the south and north, covering a floor area equal to 700 square meters with sides 70 100 meters.
At the time that was used basalt and granite in the building walls or walls core, the central dome supported by four granite columns and a huge round diameter of about 3 meters high altitude.
For the collector and one big door open to the West, does not lead directly to the inner courtyard of the mosque, but passes human rectangular courtyard before Dfah inside.
At the end of this arena rectangular from the north, is a door leading to inner peace leading to the role of the upper, which is him unique is located inside the building, which does not include grades upward, but a spiral staircase and a large raises one of the highest in a simple manner and gradual rely on walk in the corridors of the helical floor take the form of early flat ground.
It is inside the Hagia Sophia reads one stained glass windows in the wall vector hand direction, and is characterized by the construction of this historical phenomenon of the upper floor, the Ottomans have walked on this structural pattern in most of the mosques that were built after the opening of Istanbul and even to this day.
This is what looks like a floor or porch surrounded aspects except for the east side where the mihrab, and still images of Jesus and Mary, peace be upon them occupies their place in the belly of the dome and the interior walls of the mosque until the Supreme today without change or remove.
The dome of Hagia Sophia was considered a great beauty sophisticated at that time it was not a huge dome seen before, looked like a hanging in the air. It was a matter of course to a large extent it has become to the Engineer Byzantine ability and experience ancient and vast knowledge to create what is a remarkable and new.
Contains a section on the outside:
Ornate dome of Aya Sofya, cemeteries and graves of the sultans, elementary school, waterfall taps and ablution, Moqtin room, minarets, struts of Foreign Affairs, the Treasury building, the house of the poor, school Conqueror.
The inner section contains the:
Dome of Aya Sofya Central, paintings, drawings, mosaics, paintings lines in the Aya Sofya, the tiles in the Aya Sofya, the mihrab, minbar, Room Sultan room, the muezzin, library Mahmud I, jars marble column Wishlist, which is located in the north-west of the building, gate Emperor and some other sections.
Hagia Sophia Museum is open to visitors every day except Monday.
Schedule in the winter from 9:00 until 17:00 in the summer from 9:00 until 19:00.
The cost of entry:
Adults: 25 TL, and for children up to the age of 12 free of charge