Built as a church and repurposed during its 1,500‑year history as a mosque, a museum and now a mosque once more, the Hagia ...

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 Hagia Sophia remains a highly popular tourist destination, attracting millions of travelers. Here is a detailed look at this ancient UNESCO World Heritage Site in Istanbul, Turkey.

Turkey has begun a new phase in sweeping restorations of the nearly 1,500-year-old Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, focusing on preserving the monument’s historic domes from the threat of earthquakes.

People pray inside the Byzantine-era Hagia Sophia, with sail-like drapes, top, covering mosaics, following the inaugural Friday prayers, in the historic Sultanahmet district of Istanbul, Friday ...

Archaeology & History The Many Lives of Istanbul’s 1,500-Year-Old Architectural Icon Throughout its centuries-long existence, the Hagia Sophia has been a place of worship for different religions.

Hagia Sophia was built as a church over a Roman temple, and was subsequently converted into a mosque and then a museum. Since 2020 it is used as a mosque once more.© Yasin Akgul/AFP/Getty Images ...

The current Hagia Sophia was built in the 6th century when Constantinople — as Istanbul was then called — was the heart of the Orthodox Christian Byzantine Empire that emerged as Ancient Rome ...