Hagia Sophia

Hagia Sophia means "Church of the Holy Wisdom". There are many churches with this name, but this is the largest and most spectacular. Opened by Justinian in 537 the church was designed to mirror heaven. Apparently it had that effect on some people. The pagan queen of Russia was so impressed with a high mass held in the church that she returned to her country and converted it to Orthadox Christianity. Someone pointed out that if it is impressive to us, then remember that the vast majority of people in 500AD were living in mud huts.
	view from the park...	The three minarets were added after the Ottomans converted the church into a mosque in the 15th century.
	Under the dome.	The whole place was under repair. No wonder considering it's age and use. Notice the row of windows under the dome. Even today this would be feat of engineering, but image figuring this out in the 6th century!
		The dome reaches a height of 184ft
	Mosaics	After converted to a Mosque the church mosaics were either destoyed, defaced or covered over.
	Mosaic of Justinian, Constintine, Mary and the baby Jesus.	This mosaic shows Justinian on the left presenting the Hagia Sophia to a seated Mary and Jesus. On the right is Constintine doing the same with the city of Constantinople (Istanbul).
	Ablutions Fountain	One of the tenants of Islam is washing before praying. The Rococo style washing fountain was built on the grounds of the Hagia Sophia around 1740.