The Hagia Sophia that we are seeing today is actually the third church of this name to stand on Sultanahmet Square. UNESCO have funded its conservation and it is on the UNESCO World Heritage List. This is the history of Hagia Sophia or Ayasofya in Turkish, one of the most visited historical monuments in the world.
Hagia Sophia was one of the largest Byzantine church in Constantinople, which is Istanbul, in modern day Turkiye. After the fall of Constantinople in 1453 it was converted to a Mosque. In 1934, it was declared a museum by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founding father of the Republic of Turkiye. On July 24, 2020, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkiye opened it for worship as a mosque, without prior discussion with UNESCO, and Ottoman architectural elements were added.
However, there was a court ruling that found its conversion into a museum by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk unlawful. It violated the will of its endower, Sultan Mehmet (Muhammad al-Fatih), who had remunerated for the property with his own money. The ownership was given to Muslims as a permanent endowment. Of course, there will also be people to refute such a claim.
We visited Hagia Sophia after the conversion. All of us ladies had our scarves on, covering our heads. Check out the long queue to visit it.
Before entering the prayer hall, we were all required to remove our shoes. Cubicles are available for them to be kept. This was what we saw on 21 October, 2022.
We visited the Sultanahmet Camii (Blue Mosque) on 15 October 2022. It was built during the reign of Sultan Ahmet 1 and completed in 1617. Yavuz informed us that it is still under restoration. The work started on July 6, 2017 and was forcasted to complete in four years but had to be extended due to difficulties in the restoration process. Amid the work, tourists can still visit it and worshipers are still allowed to pray there daily. However, due to the scaffolding frames installed, we were not able to view it in in its entirety. There are 21,043 tiles in more than 50 designs installed in the mosque and because blue is the dominating tone of the tiles and pencil works on the inner walls, foreigners who have seen it, called it the 'Blue Mosque'.
This is the interior of the Blue Mosque.
You can have a closer look at the details of the mosque or make a virtual tour of the area at the offcial website for Sultanahmet Camii by clicking on the following links:
Yavuz talked about its history and being a Muslim, he showed us how they perform their prayers.
He said that though polygamy is allowed in Islam, it is just a provision in the Quran and not an order. The primary occasion for it to be practiced is in war-time situations, after the passing of the husband/father. For such situations, Islam gives the provision of polygamy so that the widows and orphans could continue to have a family life.
I like this video I found at Islamic Landmarks as you can see the mosque before renovation started on it. It also shared the controversies Sultan Ahmet 1faced building it and the reasons for the decline of the Ottoman Empire.
On the way out of the mosque, we were offered Quoran published in English.
Göreme is located in Nevsehir province in Central Anatolia. It is well known for its: -amazing rock formations -hollowed out settlements and churches from the Middle Ages -underground cities -hot air balloon rides, which started in 1984 (read about its history at Urgup Balloons ) I read from Wikipedia that inhabitants there built stone rooms in front of old dugout caves to live in. The caves were then used for storage and for accommodating horses. As more tourists visit the town, the owners sold their homes to be converted into unique hotels. We stayed at Kaldeson Cave Suites which is in one of such hotel. I read that the Göreme National Park and the Rock Sites of Cappadocia is one of the first UNESCO World Heritage Sites registered in Turkey . We did not visit Göreme National Park which surrounds the entire town of Göreme. However, we visted the Göreme Open Air Museum because in Cappadocia it has the most painted cave churc...
My friend told me that she would like to travel to Turkiye on her own. I told her that though she can easily find information on where to go from travel guide blog by Turkish Airline s, it is not a good idea as she will face a problem communicating with the locals. Most of the stall owners there do not speak in English and their signbaords are in Turkish language. When you join a travel package, usually breakfast and dinner are served in hotels. Most of the time the food are served buffet style. Food served at the hotels we stayed in were not labeled. The hotel staff could not tell us what were being served as they could not understand what we were asking in English. If the dishes were labeled, fussy eaters like me could do a search to check out the ingredients in the dishes. I was lucky that there was a wide spread of food in most of the hotels, so, I was able to try in small portions, dishes with ingredients that looked familiar. If I did not have e...
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