Audio GuideHagia Sophia Grand Mosque

The Ayasofya-i Kebir Cami-i Şerifi, known worldwide as Hagia Sophia, stands at the very heart of Istanbul, at the meeting point of Europe and Asia. Step through its doors and you are immediately struck by an overwhelming sense of grandeur—sunlight pours in through tall arched windows, glinting off walls lined with marble and mosaics that sparkle like jewels. The central dome rises skyward more than fifty metres above the ground, seemingly suspended in the air and supported by smaller half-domes and elegant arches.

Muhittin Bayram

Hagia Sophia’s story stretches back nearly one thousand five hundred years. Originally built as a grand cathedral for the Christian Byzantine Empire under Emperor Justinian in the early sixth century, it was, at the time, the largest church in the world—a setting worthy of imperial ceremonies, crowned by a dome that was an unparalleled feat of architecture. Ingenious curved, triangular supports, called pendentives, distributed the dome’s immense weight, ensuring the building’s extraordinary stability. This design went on to inspire countless Orthodox churches and, centuries later, many of the world’s most iconic mosques.

Himmet Öksüzoğlu

Over the centuries, Hagia Sophia’s purpose changed as empires rose and fell. After the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in the mid-fifteenth century, the cathedral was converted into a mosque. New features appeared: four slender minarets, a prayer niche known as a mihrab, and magnificent chandeliers for worship. Much of the Christian artwork was hidden from sight rather than destroyed—mosaics depicting saints and emperors were plastered over but endured beneath the surface. In the twentieth century, when Hagia Sophia became a museum, some of these golden and colourful mosaics were revealed once again.

Syed Waqas Haider

As both church and mosque, Hagia Sophia has embodied the spirit and aspirations of empires. It is the place where emperors were crowned, where victors offered up their gratitude, and where spiritual and artistic traditions have mingled and evolved. Its restorations, spanning centuries, have brought together international expertise and pioneering engineering—Ottoman builders added flying buttresses and strengthening supports, nineteenth-century European specialists carefully uncovered Byzantine art, and today’s Turkish conservators strive to protect both its Christian and Islamic features.

Now, Hagia Sophia functions again as a mosque, although visitors can still explore its upper galleries as a museum. These recent changes have sparked worldwide discussion about cultural heritage and the meaning of identity, underlining the building’s lasting ability to inspire dialogue. Through fires, earthquakes, and centuries of political upheaval, Hagia Sophia has endured—more than a masterpiece of stone and mosaics, it remains a living monument to Istanbul’s rich and layered past, beckoning new generations to step inside and lose themselves in its wonder.