The Many Mosques of Istanbul
Hagia Sophia
In short, the Hagia Sophia was originally built as a basilica for the Greek Orthodox Christian Church in 360 AD by the Byzantine Empire under the leadership of Emperor Constantius. It burned to the ground in 404 AD, was rebuilt and again burned to the ground during the Nika Revolts against Emperor Justinian I. Justinian ordered it to be completely rebuilt in 537 AD, and this is the structure that remains today. When Constantinople was conquered by the Ottomans in 1453, the city became Istanbul and the Hagia Sophia became a mosque, which is its purpose now. (Obviously I am skipping a lot of history here!)
Outside the Hagia Sophia were several tombs for past sultans. You can see in this photo that they are laid to rest with their families surrounding them.
There was great decoration inside and outside of these tombs. This photo shows one of the tilings outside the entrance of a tomb that was supposed to have been restored in France. However, the pieces here were returned as replicas and the originals are now in the Louvre and the French refuse to give them back.
Sultanahmet Camii (The Blue Mosque)
The beautiful Blue Mosque was built between 1609-1616 during the reign of Ahmed I. Apparently the Ottomans had lost a war with the Persians and the sultan wanted to reassert Ottoman power, so he had this built by the treasury, which ticked off some people because usually big things like this were built using money that had come from winning wars.
The interior was under renovation when we were visiting which was vastly disappointing, but it looks beautiful from the outside!
Little Hagia Sophia
This was also originally built as a church by Emperor Justinian I and was converted to a mosque after the takeover of the Ottomans.
Nuruosmaniye
Built from 1748-1755, it’s the fourth largest mosque in Istanbul and it’s a beauty!
