28 July, 2020
Photographs of Hagia Sophia taken in 2019. Originally built by order of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I the Great from 408 to 415, Hagia Sophia was the largest church in the world. In 1453, after the fall of Constantinople, it was turned into a mosque. From 1934 to 2020 it served as a museum. Hagia Sophia was visited by up to 4 million tourists a year and was a source of shelter and warmth for the famous Istanbul cats. After Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan restored it’s mosque status, on Friday, July 24th, 2020, after a full 86 years, namaz prayers began under her vaults.
