Hagia Sophia

Historic · SultanahmetIstanbul, Türkiye

Hagia Sophia opened in 537 as the largest enclosed space in the world, and nothing bigger was built for nearly a thousand years. The Byzantine emperor Justinian raised this vast cathedral in just five years, and for nine centuries it was the heart of Eastern Christianity. After the Ottomans took Constantinople in 1453, Mehmed II converted it into a mosque; it became a museum in 1935, and since 2020 it has been a working mosque once again. Since 2024 visitors take a separate route straight up to the vast upper gallery, while the floor below is kept for worship. From the parapet the interior opens all at once: gold-ground Byzantine mosaics and the giant Ottoman calligraphy roundels ringing the base of the dome, which spans about 31 metres and seems to float on its ring of forty windows. The gallery holds its own Byzantine treasures — above all the thirteenth-century Deesis mosaic — and the finest view is down the length of the hall, where fifteen centuries of footsteps have worn the pavement into soft waves.

Worth knowing

Good to know

Come at opening or in the last hour — the tourist entrance and the upper gallery are emptiest then, and the low evening sun lights up the gold mosaics.
Visit between the prayer times — during the five daily prayers the figural mosaics on the ground floor, such as the Virgin at the far end, are covered over, so come in the hours in between to see them uncovered and lit.
Look across the nave from the gallery parapet — from up there the Byzantine gold mosaics and the huge Ottoman calligraphy roundels line up in the same view, the Christian and Islamic decoration of the building side by side.
Take the south ramp first — the Deesis mosaic is at the far end of it, and arriving before the tour groups gives you a few quiet minutes in front of it.
Dress for a working mosque — shoulders and knees covered, hair covered for women on the gallery route, and scarves are lent at the door; entry also pauses around midday on Friday for the main prayer.

Things to do

1
Find the Omphalion from above
From the gallery parapet, look down to the right of the nave's centre for a ring of coloured marble circles set into the floor: the Omphalion, where Byzantine emperors were crowned. You can no longer stand on it — the floor is worshippers' space now — but from above the great porphyry disc still marks the exact spot.
2
Pick out the Virgin and Child mosaic
Across the nave from the gallery, in the half-dome above the old altar, glows a ninth-century mosaic of the Virgin and Child — the first great figural image set here after the icon-smashing years. It is veiled at prayer times; between them, catch it lit against the gold, best with a small zoom or a pair of binoculars to bring the far figure close.
3
Climb the empress's ramp
The way up to the gallery is a broad cobbled ramp, laid at so gentle an angle that the empress could be carried up it in a litter instead of climbing stairs. Take it slowly, and at the top the interior drops away all at once — chandeliers at your feet, calligraphy roundels at eye level, the dome overhead. The building's best photographs are taken from here.
4
Step back onto the square at dusk
As the light drops, cross to the fountain in the park between Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque. The floodlights come on, gulls circle the minarets, and you get both buildings' silhouettes facing each other across Sultanahmet Square — free, every evening, and far quieter than the daytime queues.