Hagia Sophia

Hagia Sophia is a working mosque, and it is also the building that explains the old city better than any of the others. We see it with Metin on Wednesday, in a morning that also includes the Blue Mosque, the cistern, Topkapı, and the Grand Bazaar if we want the bazaar while we are already over there. Republic Day is Thursday. The page says bazaar timing on the 29th is uncertain, so Wednesday morning is the slot we were given.

Justinian’s church was built in 532–537, after the Nika riots burned its predecessor. The architects were Isidore of Miletus and Anthemius of Tralles, a geometer and a physicist more than a pair of career cathedral-builders. The problem they solved is the dome: a shallow shell on four arches, with a ring of windows at the base so the canopy seems to sit on light. It partially fell and was rebuilt in the sixth century, and it has been repaired after earthquakes since. You are looking at a structure that has been saved, not a pristine original skin.

For almost a thousand years it was the cathedral of Constantinople. In 1453 it became a mosque. From 1935 it was a museum. In 2020 it became a mosque again. That last change is the practical one for us. Some mosaic access moves with the rules. Do not arrive with a checklist of specific panels you must see upstairs. Look at the dome, the marble revetment, the scale of the nave, and whatever mosaic is currently visible. Staff and Metin know that morning’s rules. We follow them.

Dress and behavior are mosque rules, posted at the entrance, including during prayer. Our €25 ticket is the visitor ticket. It is not a museum admission from 2019, and it is not part of Metin’s $400. His fee is cash, day-of, split four ways. The monument tickets are each person’s own card.

Friday the 30th, if we are not finished and want to return: stay away from 12:00–14:30 because of Friday prayer. That warning is on our Friday page. Wednesday with Metin is the day we actually intend to be inside.