Event: Turkey - Istanbul

Haghia Sophia

When:	Daily; not Mon
Where:	Haghia Sophia
Costs:	YTL10
Opening Hours:	Tue-Sun 9am-5pm

Haghia Sofia's minarets are visible through much of Sultanahmet. Originally a Byzantine church, it was converted into a mosque by Muslim conquerors. Today its immense domed interior is a museum. Ascend to the viewing gallery to see its religious frescoes.

Built in 535 AD by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian, the Haghia Sophia (meaning Divine Wisdom) was the most famous church in Christendom for the entire medieval period. It was designed by two Athenian mathematicians who used their knowledge to create a structure which supported the largest dome in the world (only surpassed when St Peter's was raised in Rome). So unusual was its construction that many pious Christians were afraid to enter the portals because they believed it might fall on their heads.

When the Venetians sacked Constantinople during the disastrous Fourth Crusade (1204 AD), they carted off treasures galore from that crumbling capital of Christendom. The Haghia Sophia - the most sacred space in the city - was not spared. Holy relics including a trace of Christ's blood and a piece of the Holy Cross, a "not inconsiderable piece of St John" and St James' arm were all taken and later scattered around various churches in Western Europe. Even the sacred altar, "formed of all kinds of precious materials and admired by the whole world", was broken up and shared as booty among the soldiers.

Too heavy to steal, however, were the porphyry columns holding up the roof. They still stand, almost 1500 years after they were floated to Constantinople from the upper reaches of the Nile in what is now Sudan. Stone from all over the Byzantine Empire was used to build the Haghia Sophia - from Anatolia, Syria and the Pelopponese just for starters. So solid were its foundations and so impressive was its size that the Muslim conquerors of the 15th century turned it into a mosque by building a minaret and a mihrab into its eastern-facing wall.