Here are a few things you need to know before going to the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul to better appreciate it!

Just across the street from the Blue Mosque, the Hagia Sophia, every time I came before, the scaffolding for repairing the ceiling in the middle of the church was always there, but this time it's gone! Because in July 2020, Turkey officially changed this nearly 1500-year-old architectural gem of the Eastern Roman Empire, which has been displayed as a museum since 1935, into a mosque for worship. In fact, more than five hundred years ago, the Ottomans had already conquered the Eastern Romans. When the Eastern Roman Empire was destroyed and the Ottoman Empire was established, the Hagia Sophia, which can be said to have changed architectural history and occupied the largest church building in the world for nine centuries, had already been converted into a mosque, as a symbol of Islam's conquest of Christian civilization. As the most important mosque in Istanbul for nearly 500 years, the Hagia Sophia is a model for many mosques during the Ottoman Empire, such as: Sultan Ahmed Mosque (Blue Mosque), Sehzade Mosque, Kilic Ali Pasha Mosque. But the first president of the Republic of Turkey, Kemal, had already stopped Islamic activities in the Hagia Sophia in 1934 and began to restore the murals and sculptures left from the Eastern Roman Empire era inside the church, and finally the church was reopened to the world as a museum in 1935. Although Kemal turned the Hagia Sophia into a museum, it was not only for the need to protect historical buildings, but also a demonstration of his determination to completely abandon Islamic tradition and fully westernize... Under the leadership of the current president Erdogan, Turkey has shown more and more anti-secular characteristics in recent years, and the practice of changing the Hagia Sophia into a mosque has gained widespread support and praise in Turkey. But because of the sensitive position of this church in history and its important historical and cultural value, Western countries and UNESCO do not want to change the current situation, hoping that the cathedral can continue to be protected as a museum... We don't know what the future will be like. Religion has given the Hagia Sophia a supreme status, but it has also kept it at the center of the vortex of the game between Christianity and Islam. Once upon a time, I visited many buildings with religious attributes changed due to power changes and times in my last round of global travel. This time, I witnessed it happen! The move to change the Hagia Sophia into a mosque in the 21st century is no less than the decision to rename Constantinople as Istanbul in the 1930s of the last century, which is undoubtedly a heavy news in the Western world, especially the Christian world! Finally, let's share some architectural background and details of the Hagia Sophia that are worth visiting and appreciating. The church is a great achievement of late ancient architecture and the first masterpiece of Byzantine architecture. Its influence in architecture and rituals is profound and widespread in the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Catholic Church, and the Muslim world. The largest column in the cathedral is 19 to 20 meters high, with a diameter of about 1.5 meters, made of granite, and weighs over 70 tons. Justinian I ordered the disassembly and transportation of eight Corinthian columns from Baalbek, Lebanon, to Constantinople to build the Hagia Sophia. At the east and west ends of the church, the arched notches extend from the semi-dome, forming a semi-circular conversation space. This tiered dome creates a vast elliptical space under the main dome, which was unprecedented in the near ancient times. Even so, the weight of the dome still poses a problem, so buttresses need to be built outside. The interior floor is paved with multicolored marble, green and white with purple porphyry, and golden mosaics, and the mosaic murals of the Hagia Sophia are not to be missed: these mosaics depict the Virgin Mary, Jesus, saints, emperors and empresses, as well as other purely decorative geometric mosaics, arranged quite gorgeously.