Page 37 - Nile Explorer 10 Final-3-FINAL O-WITH NEW ALDO PHO COPY FOR PRINT

conservative rightwing state at the
door of the western world.
Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan made
the controversial decision 10, July
to convert the building back into a
mosque. Islamic prayers were held
shortly after the announcement
with curtains partially concealing
the building’s Christian imagery.
As Turkey’s most popular tourist
destination, the Hagia Sophia
remained open to visitors.
The Story of Hagia Sophia The Changing faces of the inside of the Hagia Sophia dome. On right, figural mosaics
showing Virgin and Child in the main apse, with the archangels Michael and Gabriel
The story of the iconic Hagia Sophia on either side.
is as impressive as that of the city in
which it is built and the reverential In plan the building is almost square. a millennium it was the Cathedral
status it is accorded in the Christian There are three aisles separated by of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of
world, while its location is another columns with galleries above and great Constantinople. It was looted in 1204
world - The Islamic world. marble piers rising up to support the by the Venetians and the Crusaders on
According the encyclopedia dome. The walls above the galleries the Fourth Crusade.
Britannica, Hagia Sophia, Turkish and the base of the dome are pierced After the Turkish conquest of
Ayasofya, Latin Sancta Sophia, also by windows, which in the glare of Constantinople in 1453, Mehmed II
called Church of the Holy Wisdom daylight obscure the supports and give had it repurposed as a mosque, with
or Church of the Divine Wisdom, is the impression that the canopy floats the addition of a wooden minaret
an important Byzantine structure in on air. (on the exterior, a tower used for
Istanbul and one of the world’s great The original church on the site of the the summons to prayer), a great
monuments. It was built as a Christian Hagia Sophia is said to have been chandelier, a mihrab (niche indicating
church in the 6th century ce (532–537) ordered to be built by Constantine I the direction of Mecca), and a minbar
under the direction of the Byzantine in 325 on the foundations of a pagan (pulpit). Either he or his son Bayezid II
emperor Justinian 1. temple. His son, Constantus II, erected the red minaret that stands on
In subsequent centuries it became a consecrated it in 360. It was damaged the southeast corner of the structure.
mosque, a museum, and a mosque in 404 by a fire that erupted during a The original wooden minaret did not
again. The building reflects the riot following the second banishment survive. Bayezid II erected the narrow
religious changes that have played of St John Chrysostom,, then patriarch white minaret on the northeast side
out in the region over the centuries, of Constantinople. It was rebuilt and of the mosque. The two identical
with the minarets and inscriptions of enlarged by the Roman emperor minarets on the western side were
Islam as well as the lavish mosaics of Constans I.The restored building was likely commissioned by Selim II or
Christianity. rededicated in 415 by Theodosius II. Murad III and built by renowned
The church was burned again in the Ottoman architect Sinan in the 1500s.
The Hagia Sophia was built in the Nika insurrection of January 532, a
remarkably short time of about six circumstance that gave Justinian I an In 1934 Turkish Pres. Mustafa Kemal
years, being completed in 537 ce. opportunity to envision a splendid Atatürk secularized the building, and
Unusual for the period in which it replacement. in 1935 it was made into a museum.
was built, the names of the building’s Art historians consider the building’s
architects— Anthemius of Tralles and The structure now standing is beautiful mosaics to be the main source
Isidorus of Miletus—are well known, essentially the 6th-century edifice, of knowledge about the state of mosaic
as is their familiarity with mechanics although an earthquake caused a art in the time shortly after the end of
and mathematics. The Hagia Sophia partial collapse of the dome in 558 the Iconoclastic Controversy in the 8th
combines a longitudinal basilica and (restored 562) and there were two and 9th centuries. In 1985 the Hagia
a centralized building in a wholly further partial collapses, after which Sophia was designated a component of
original manner, with a huge 32-metre it was rebuilt to a smaller scale and a UNESCO World Heritage site called
(105-foot) main dome supported on the whole church reinforced from the Historic Areas of Istanbul, which
pendentives and two semidomes, one the outside. It was restored again in includes that city’s other major historic
on either side of the longitudinal axis. the mid-14th century. For more than buildings and locations.

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