Hagia Sophia - Istanbul, Turkey

Hagia Sophia officially the Holy Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque and formerly the Hagia Sophia Church and formerly the museum is a place of worship for Antiquities in Istanbul, designed by the Greek geographer Isidore of Miletus and Anthemius of Tralles. Built in 537 as the patriarchal church of Constantinople, it was the largest Christian church of the Eastern Roman Empire and the Eastern Orthodox Church, with the exception of the Latin Empire from 1204 to 1261, when it became the city's Latin Catholic church. In 1453, after the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire, it was converted into a mosque. In 1935, under the direction of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the secular Republic of Turkey established it as a museum. In 2020, under the direction of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, it was reopened as a mosque.

Now a popular museum, its cave interior boasts numerous exquisite columns and domes, with superb frescoes and mosaics on display. Located on the shores of the Bosphorus, just a short distance from the Blue Mosque and Topkapi Palace, Hagia Sophia is a must-see while in Istanbul.