Hagia Sophia

The construction of the Hagia Sophia began on February 23, 532. It was completed approximately within 5 years and 10 months. It was then opened to divine service with a great ceremony on December 27, 537.

At the time of its construction it was the largest building in the world. It remained the world's largest cathedral for nearly a thousand years until Seville Cathedral was completed in 1520.

It was used as a church for 916 years but, following the conquest of Istanbul by Fatih Sultan Mehmed, the Hagia Sophia was converted into mosque. Afterwards, it was used as a mosque for 482 years.

After the building converted into a mosque, the bells, altar and sacrificial vessels were removed and many of the mosaics were plastered over. So that today we can see the mosaics clearly.

Islamic features – such as the mihrab, minbar, and four minarets – were added

Before 1481 a small minaret was erected on the SW corner of the building. Later, the subsequent sultan, Bayezid II , built

another minaret at the NE corner.

During the reign of Selim II , the building started to show signs of fatigue and was extensively strengthened with the

addition of structural supports to its exterior by the great Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan, who is also considered one of the world's first earthquake engineers.Sinan built the two additional large minarets at the western end of the building

and these two minarets made the building stronger.

In 1717, under Sultan Ahmed III (1703–1730), the crumbling plaster of the interior was renovated,

contributing indirectly to the preservation of many mosaics, which otherwise would have been destroyed by

mosque workers.

The most famous restoration of the AyaSofya was ordered by Sultan Abdülmecid and completed by eight hundred workers

between 1847 and 1849, under the supervision of the Swiss-Italian architect brothers Gaspare and Giuseppe Fossati. The brothers

consolidated the dome and vaults, straightened the columns, and revised the decoration of the exterior and the interior of the

building.

The old chandeliers were replaced by new pendant ones. New gigantic circular-framed disks or medallions were hung on columns. They were inscribed with the names of Allah, the Prophet Muhammad, and the two grandchildren of Prophet

Mohammed: Hassan and Hussain.The minarets were altered so that they were of equal height. When the restoration was

finished, the mosque was reopened on 13 July 1849.

In 1935, the first Turkish President and founder of the Republic of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, transformed the building into a museum. The carpets were removed and the marble floor appeared for the first time,while the white plaster covering many of the mosaics was removed.

Turkish Ministry of Culture restored the building between 2006 and 2011, though other areas of Hagia Sophia continue to

require conservation.

Today, use of the complex as a place of worship (mosque or church) is strictly prohibited.However, in 2006, it was reported that the Turkish government allowed the allocation of a small room in the museum to be used as a prayer room for Christian and Muslim museum staff.

The Süleymaniye Mosque

The Süleymaniye Mosque was built on the order of Sultan Süleyman (Süleyman the Magnificent) and it was built by Mimar Sinan.The work began in 1550 and the mosque was finished in 1558.

It is the second largest mosque in the city, and one of the best-known sights of Istanbul.

You can see both Islamic and Byzantine architectural

elements in this mosque. It combines tall, slender minarets

with large domed buildings supported by half domes in the style of the Byzantine church

Hagia Sophia

The main dome is 53 meters high and has a diameter of 27.5 meters. At the time it was built, the dome was the highest in the Ottoman Empire, when measured from sea level, but still lower from its base and smaller in diameter than that of Hagia Sophia.

The interior of the mosque is almost a square, 59 meters in length and 58 meters in width. The interior decoration is simple. The white marble mihrab and mimbar are also simple in design, and woodwork is restrained, with simple designs in ivory.

As with other imperial mosques in Istanbul, the Süleymaniye Mosque was designed as a külliye which called complex with adjacent structures to service both religious and cultural needs.

The original complex consisted of the mosque itself, a hospital , primary school, public baths, a Caravanserai, four Qur'an schools , a specialized school for the learning of hadith, a medical college, and a public kitchen which served food to the poor people. Many of these structures are still in existence, and the former imaret is now a noted restaurant.

In the garden behind the main mosque there are two mausoleums including the tombs of sultan Süleyman the Magnificent, his wife Roxelana (Haseki Hürrem)

The Süleymaniye was ravaged by a fire in 1660 and was restored by Sultan Mehmed IV. Part of the dome collapsed again during the earthquake of 1766.Subsequent repairs damaged what was left of the original decoration of Sinan.During the war the mosque suffered another fire. It was fully restored again in 1956.

The most important repair of Suleymaniye Mosque was between 2007 and 2011. As part of this restoration process, the mosque’s courtyards and minarets had been carefully cleaned up, imitation

items that had been mounted on the building during previous renovations had been changed with pieces compatible with the mosque’s original structure and new İznik ceramics had been

discovered.

Now it is still a mosque.