As a child, I always wanted to see the Hagia Sophia and the Basilica Cistern in Istanbul with my own eyes.
The former church (now a mosque) was built around 1550 years ago by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I and has had a very eventful history ever since.
If you visit the Historical Museum of Hagia Sophia (next door) beforehand, you will be treated to a very interesting multimedia show about the entire history of the building.
For almost 1,000 years it was the largest church in Christendom, in 1453 the Ottoman conquerors turned it into a mosque, in 1934 it was declared a museum by Atatürk and in 2020 Erdogan made it a mosque again by law.
Unfortunately, since the Hagia Sophia became an actively used mosque again, you are no longer allowed to enter the main room (unless you are Muslim) but only on the first floor on the surrounding balustrades and photos are only allowed from the hand without a tripod.
Nevertheless, the Hagia Sophia “in real life” is still extremely impressive for me and I am happy to have visited it at least once in my life!
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