Aya Sofya and Blue Mosque

Located next to Topkapi Palace, the Aya Sofya is the most famous sacred space in Istanbul. It's huge (larger than the Vatican) and really old: built by the Roman Emperor Justinian in the 500s as a Christian church, it was destroyed during the Crusades (we think by the Christians, but are unclear why the Christians would attack an already Christian city...). At any rate, when Istanbul was conquered by the Ottomans in 1453 the Aya Sofya became a mosque, so the mosaics of Mary and Jesus and the Archangel Gabriel now look down upon the mimbar (the Islamic equivalent of the pulpit). There are many beautiful mosaics, although not as stunning as the Kariye mosaics we saw later. The exterior of the building is not as interesting- the four minarets do look a little out of place with the rest of the structure.

The Aya Sofya and the Blue Mosque are the two structures that dominate the landscape of Sultanahmet, the tourist neighborhood where we stayed. Our hotel's rooftop terrace had an especially great view of the Aya Sofya, which looks even more impressive lit up at night. We would also hear the muezzin call to prayer from the Mosque. Last Sunday, Muslims celebrated Mohammed's Ascension. We heard songs and speeches from the mosque until at least midnight, and people in our hotel said that some people stayed all night to pray. To enter the Blue Mosque, we had to go through a separate non-Muslim entrance and remove our shoes. They had cloth wraps at the door; Rachel had to take one to cover her shoulders, but despite the sign saying shorts weren't allowed they didn't seem to care about my wearing shorts. Inside, the mosque is beautifully decorated with tiles and painted designs, all in blue and red. There are small rectangles in the carpet for prayer rugs--not sure what the capacity is, but it was huge!