Hagia Sophia and the Grand Bazaar

The Hagia Sophia (Ayasofia). On my first venture out, this was the main attraction. I honestly did not know...anything...about this Cathedral, turned Mosque, turned Museum. I did a little reading before going and this is what I learned. The Ayasofia was built in the 530's AD as a Cathedral of Constantinople. So, that makes this building almost 1500 years old. Take that America! The architecture was above all others the best for it's time. In fact, until the 1500's it was the largest place of prayer in the world. The Seville Cathedral took over after that.
In 1453, the Ottoman Turks conqured the area and turned the cathedral into a Mosque. Many items were taken down (i.e., the bells and alter) and more Islamic features were built. The mihrab is the niche in the wall that represents the direction of Mecca. In the picture below I am in front of the mihrab. The minbar is the location to the right of the mihrab where the Imam delivers sermons. In the picture below the one with me you can vaguely make out the minbar. It looks like a tall narrow thrown. A third feature that was added to the cathedral converted mosque were minarets. Minarets are the tall onion shaped crowns on the outside of the mosques.

The mosaics that decorated the cathedral until the 1400's were plastered over when the cathedral was turned into a mosque. Some restoration has taken place and you can see many of the mosaics when you tour. They are very beautiful. If my camera hadn't died I would have more to show.

The picture below is of the internal ceiling. The mosque was turned into a museum in the early 1900's when the Republic of Turkey took over from the Ottoman Empire.

Along with my first venture out into Old Istanbul, I took a little tour of the Grand Bazaar. Quite the marketplace they have going on there! I was quite impressed with their use of space. Personal space is nonexistant, especially when you are in the shop. This picture below is of the walkway. Each store has a small little closet like room you can go in and look at more items. I was also quite impressed with the shop owners/workers. Many of them are multilingual...which is necessary when your many clients are foreigners. Of course the main foreign language is English, but I heard some Spanish (and even saw a Spanish dictionary lying around in a store) and French. I was talking to an owner and he said that the Bazaar offers language classes for their shop owners. The man I spoke to was currently learning Spanish. Very interesting!