hagia sophia

This was an absolutely BEAUTIFUL church/mosque/museum. Yes, it's all three of those things. 

It was built in the mid-6th century and was the largest church in the world for 1000 years. When the Ottomans conquered Constantinople (former name of Istanbul) in 1453 they converted it into a mosque. It then became a museum in 1935.

Every wall and ceiling was so extravagant! I loved the purple marble so much!

In this picture you can see evidence of the church with Chrit there in the middle and then the mosque with the names of Allah and Muhammed written in Arabic on those big circles.

When it was convrted to a mosque, the Ottomans covered all the Christian art with plaster so as to not expose human faces. Here's an example of that with these angels.

This mosaic was actually somewhat preserved from the plaster as with much of the other art.

This building was absolutely beautiful! And it's huge. It was the first thing we did as we got off the plane so it was a bit overwhelming to just jump right in but it was fascinating to learn about and I was just so excited to be there!

The focus of our trip was on the Ecumenical Councils. The fifth and sixth ones were held here where the nature of Christ as both human and divine was discussed.