The Hagia Sophia, located in Istanbul, Turkey, is a major historical and artistic monument famous for having been used by different religions. The UNESCO World Heritage Site was originally ...

Built as a church and repurposed during its 1,500‑year history as a mosque, a museum and now a mosque once more, the Hagia ...

Today, Hagia Sophia is one of the world’s most extraordinary mosques — but it’s more than that. It’s also a symbol, a cultural phenomenon, and a monument.

The Ottomans converted the church into a mosque when they conquered the city in 1453. Interior of the Hagia Sophia. Photo by Sudharsan Narayanan, via Flickr. The walls tell the story.

A UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1985, the Hagia Sophia was built as a Greek Orthodox church in 537 AD, the largest one in the world at the time, and the seat of the Orthodox patriarch of ...

Hagia Sophia, interior (photo credit: Critical Lens Media) Stanford University art historian Bissera V. Pentcheva wanted to know what that ancient music sounded like.

"It's magic," chimed in her friend, Elias Erduran, from the Dominican Republic. - Millions of visitors - Hagia Sophia saw 7.7 million visitors stream through its spacious interior last year.

Built nearly 1,500 years ago, Hagia Sophia was the first cathedral in the Roman Empire. After a thousand years, the Ottomans converted the structure into a mosque following the sack of Constantinople.

Turkey’s election board has now annulled the March election and scheduled a new election for June 23. An interior view of Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, Turkey (image by Dean Strelau via Wikimedia).