Istanbul’s historic Hagia Sophia has reopened for Friday prayers for the first time since a decision was made to turn it back into a mosque after more than 80 years as a museum.. Images on ...

Getty Images Friday prayers are being held at the Hagia Sophia mosque in Istanbul for the first time since it was turned into a museum 85 years ago. Only about 1,000 people are being allowed ...

The Hagia Sophia museum on July 10, 2020 in Istanbul. OZAN KOSE/AFP via Getty Images. On Friday, the museum status of the Hagia Sophia, one of the most famous examples of Byzantine architecture ...

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 Fourth Crusade came galloping into Constantinople in 1204. The crusaders, as crusaders tend to do, ransacked the Hagia Sophia, desecrated it, then declared it a Roman Catholic cathedral ...

"These images are very important for Christianity because it was a major monument for Christian people," said professor Zeynep Ahunbay, who spent 25 years working on the Hagia Sophia's restoration ...

It remained a mosque until 1934, when Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the secular, modern republic of Turkey, transformed the Hagia Sophia into a museum, exposing long-concealed mosaics and ...

Istanbul’s historic Hagia Sophia has reopened for Friday prayers for the first time since a decision was made to turn it back into a mosque after more than 80 years as a museum.. Images on ...

Image source, Getty Images Friday prayers are being held at the Hagia Sophia mosque in Istanbul for the first time since it was turned into a museum 85 years ago.

Istanbul’s historic Hagia Sophia has reopened for Friday prayers for the first time since a decision was made to turn it back into a mosque after more than 80 years as a museum.. Images on ...

Istanbul’s historic Hagia Sophia has reopened for Friday prayers for the first time since a decision was made to turn it back into a mosque after more than 80 years as a museum.. Images on ...