Hagia Sophia

Completed in 537 under Emperor Justinian, Hagia Sophia held the record for the largest enclosed space on earth for nearly a thousand years. Its dome, 31 metres across and 55 metres high, seems to float on a ring of 40 windows. After the Ottoman conquest of 1453 it became a mosque; Atatürk made it a museum in 1934; and in July 2020 it returned to use as a mosque, with the Byzantine mosaics screened during prayers but otherwise visible.

Visiting since 2024

• Tourists enter through a dedicated gate on the south side and climb to the upper gallery; the ground floor is reserved for worshippers.
• The tourist ticket costs €25 (foreign visitors) and includes an audio guide; Turkish citizens and worshippers enter the prayer hall free.
• Hours are roughly 09:00–19:30, with the gallery closed during the five daily prayers and for about 90 minutes at Friday noon.
• Dress as for any mosque: covered shoulders and knees, hair covered for women (scarves are handed out), shoes on in the gallery.

What to look for

From the gallery: the Deësis mosaic of Christ, the Virgin and John the Baptist (13th century), the imperial portraits of Zoe and Comnenus, the marble door, and the Viking runes scratched into a balustrade by a bored guard called Halfdan. Below, the eight great calligraphic roundels and the mihrab set slightly off-axis toward Mecca show the building's second life.