Turkey Guide
İstanbul
Aya Sofya
Address: Sultanahmet
Opening time: Daily except Mon 9am–6pm, upper galleries close at 5.30pm
Price: 15YTL
For almost a thousand years Aya Sofya, or Haghia Sophia, was the largest enclosed space in the world, designed to impress the strength and wealth of the Byzantine emperors upon their own subjects and visiting foreign dignitaries alike. Located between the Topkapı Palace and Sultanahmet Camii on the ancient acropolis, the first hill of İstanbul, the church dominated the city skyline for a millennium, until the domes and minarets of the city's mosques began to challenge its eminence in the sixteenth century.
Inside, the figurative mosaics, all of which date from after the Iconoclastic era (726–843), are located in the narthex, the nave, the upper gallery and the vestibule. Some of the most impressive are in the south gallery where, beyond a pair of false marble doors on the west face of the pier, there's a comparatively well-lit mosaic of a Deisis, depicting Christ, the Virgin and St John the Baptist. Although this mosaic is partly damaged, the three faces are all well preserved: that of John the Baptist is especially expressive, betraying great pain and suffering, while the Virgin has downcast eyes and an expression of modesty and humility.