Virtual Tour of Hagia Sophia with Şerif Yenen

This beautiful monument has been standing here for more than 1500 years. Such
a big deal.
It is a very important building from many different aspects:
 from the historical point of view
 from the religious point of view
 from the architectural point of view
 from the cultural point of view.

The Hagia Sophia has always been such a monumental place. Let's enjoy it
together.
This world famous monument Hagia Sophia was built 3 times.
The first Hagia Sophia was a very simple one, was a very small one. It was built
by Constantine the Great. It was his son who completed the construction. Probably it
was a smaller building with a wooden roof. We don't have much information about
the earliest Hagia Sophia. But in the early 5th century the Hagia Sophia was
destroyed during some riots in town. That's why Theodosius II was able to build
the 2nd Hagia Sophia.
2nd Hagia Sophia didn't live long either but it was larger than the previous one,
maybe as large as this one. And Theodosius II added a courtyard and atrium in the
western end.
As well during the reign of Justinian in the 6th century because of some riots
against the Emperor Justinian in the ancient Hippodrome.
The people were against him. They were protesting against Justinian because he
was collecting too much taxes from people and the administration was bad
towards people. So they were very unhappy and they started protesting against
Justinian. The protesters started going out of the Hippodrome and it turned out to be
an angry mob. Those people went to the prisons first and they rescued the
prisoners from there. And together with the prisoners they started destroying
everything that they came across.
 Among these buildings were the 2nd Hagia Sophia, the Hagia Eirene, parts of the
palace and so on. They wanted to change the Emperor.
Justinian was so scared they started making escape plans. He was married to a
very wise woman Theodora. The moment Theodora heard about these escape
plans she was in shock. Although she didn't have the right to talk, she went to the
Senate meeting and she must have made a speech to the people there, they
changed their mind and they decided to stay and they decided to play a game
against the protesters.
The protesters were said that the emperor would hear them in the ancient
Hippodrome, so they were invited to go back to the Hippodrome. They believed in
this, they went to the Hippodrome. When they were all inside the armies of Justinian
started coming in from all of the gates together with their weapons. They started
slaughtering these people inside.
30,000 people were killed and after a while the riots were under control again.
But when Justinian was able to go out of his palace he came here to see the ruins
of the Hagia Sophia. He was so disappointed. He called his architects and
Anthemius and Isidorus. He asked them to make the Hagia Sophia from the
beginning. But he wanted to Hagia Sophia to be the largest religious shrine ever.
He didn't give them enough time but he gave them enough men and enough
money. These two architects started working hardly. After about 5 years they were
able to complete the building.
Justinian was here proudly for the opening ceremony of the place. The Hagia
Sophia was used as a church for 916 years. But in the year 1453 this time the Turks
captured the city of Constantinople. The first place that the 21-year-old Sultan
Mehmet II visited was Hagia Sophia.
Hagia Sophia was filled with Byzantines inside. They were shaking. They were
afraid. They all thought that the Turks would slaughter them all. When the 21-year-
old Sultan Mehmet came here, he gave an order to his soldiers no damage to the
building. No harm to people.
He looked at the building in great admiration and then he said “Let's pray the
next Friday noontime prayer here”.
 It was a Tuesday. So until the next Friday they had only 3 days. They were going
to change the building into a mosque. Of course, they immediately added a wooden
minaret in this corner. They took away all of the portable religious item from
Christianity. They covered the floors with carpets. And then they built a wooden
Mihrap, the prayer niche for the Imam, and the section for the müezzin and the
pulpit. Next Friday for the noontime there was this call for the prayer. It was already
a mosque.
Mehmet II spoke the greek language. He knew what Hagia Sophia meant. It's a
Greek word, two greek words Hagia Sophia – “DİVİNE WİSDOM”
“DİVİNE WİSDOM” was one of the attributes of Jesus Christ. He didn't even
need to change the name of the building. It was the Hagia Sophia church before and
it became the Hagia Sophia mosque the Imperial mosque of Ayasofya.

Let's look at the plan of the Hagia Sophia. First, it consists of a courtyard outside
which is also named as the atrium. And from the middle of the courtyard you come
into the building and right after you enter there is an aisle here. Horizontally lying
aisle which is named as the outer narthex. Next to this one is another narthex
which is called as the inner narthex.
From there you go into the main section of the building. And the main section of
the building was called as Naos. There's a central nave in the middle with the two
side naves on the main nave. It's a rectangular building and the dimensions of
the building are 70 by 100 meters. We are going to look at these one by one.

During the Ottoman times the Hagia Sophia was made a mosque. It was the
Imperial mosque. It was the number one mosque in the protocol. Due to this fact, it
had lots of support from some of the Ottoman Sultans. They had the Hagia Sophia
restored for a few times. One of these major restorations was made during the reign
of Sultan Abdülmecid in the middle of the 19th century. Two Swiss architects,
two brothers were in Istanbul for the construction of a palace and they were very
notable architects. So Sultan Abdülmecid heard about their fame and he
commissioned them for the restoration of the building.
 They did a wonderful job. They did a comprehensive restoration in here. During
those restorations the Fossati brothers made a gesture for the Sultan. With the tiny
pieces, the leftover pieces from some of the mosaics in here, the tesserae pieces,
mosaic pieces, they made a nice Tugra - the signature of the Sultan. By using these
mosaic pieces in here. This has been a beautiful piece.

This is the so-called sarcophagus for the Hungarian princess Piroshka with the
Hungarian name and the Greek name later became Eirene. As you know, together
with Eirene her husband John Komnenos built the Pantocrator church. And one
part of the Pantocrator church was the burial place for the Komnenos family. This
sarcophagus here is believed to have been brought here from the Pantocrator
church belonging to Eirene herself.

The Patriarchate generally took place in the galleries of the Hagia Sophia. And
there used to be a religious council which was named as the Synod. Some of the
important decisions taken in the Synod council were inscribed on some stones like
this. Somehow those original stones with the inscriptions of the Synod were recycled
in the tomb of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, in the Suleymaniye complex. During
a restoration over there they were found out. That and later they made a replica of
the same stones and they are displaying them in the outer narthex of the Hagia
Sophia now.

This door is used as the exit door for the visitors today. But at its height, this door
was the entrance for the emperors. Whenever the Byzantine emperors wanted to
come to the Hagia Sophia they came through here. Look at these beautiful doors!
These doors were thought to be from the 2nd century BC from the birthplace of
Saint Paul the city of Tarsus. Carbon dating shows that these doors do not go back
to the 2nd century BC they date back to the 1st century AD made out of cedar of
Lebanon. And the other decorative parts were added in the 9th century to these
beautiful doors.
After entering into the Hagia Sophia through the beautiful doors the emperors
would come across with a beautiful 10th century mosaic panel. In this mosaic we
see infant Jesus Christ together with the Virgin Mary. The initials of the Virgin Mary
are inscribed there. She is the mother of God Theotokos. And on the two sides
there are two more figures. The one on the left is Justinian, the founder of the
church. He is the 6th century prominent Byzantine Emperor and he is offering his
church to Jesus. And on the right hand side, that is Constantine, the founder of the
city, the Emperor who announced this city to be the new capital for the Roman
Empire. And he gave his name to the city and he is offering his city to Jesus Christ.
So this is the offering scene from the 10th century AD.

With the construction technique of the Hagia Sophia we can make a

generalization like this; on the floors they used marble only. On the walls instead
of covering the walls with a plaster and painting it over they used marble panels.
And on the ceilings they used the mosaics.
The Byzantines were experts of marble. For the construction of Hagia Sophia they
brought different quality, different color marble from different sources from all over
the Empire. This shows the power of the Empire.
The Byzantines sliced the marble in thicknesses like 2-3 cm. And they didn't
inlay them just ordinarily. They tried to bookmatch the patterns on the marble. See
the patterns are bookmatching with each other giving a symmetrical look. And
they are also framed all around and they look like painting pieces. This is beautiful!

This is the middle point of the inner narthex and the monumental gate right in the
middle was the Imperial gate. The Emperors when they entered into the building
through this beautiful door they came up until here, and from here they went into the
Naos.
Above the main entrance is a beautiful mosaic. And you see Jesus is sitting in
a throne. There there is something interesting in the Greek Orthodox Church,
generally speaking Greek Orthodox people do not prefer showing Jesus while he is
suffering. That's why we don't see many crucifixion scenes in the Greek Orthodox
churches. Instead they prefer showing Jesus like a victorious Emperor. This is
what it is now Jesus is shown like the Pantocreator, the creator of the universe -
pantocrator'. He is wearing the costumes of an emperor. He's sitting in a
beautifully decorated throne. He is doing the gesture of blessing with his right
hand. And he is holding the holy book in his left hand. On the book it says “I am
the light”.
So on the 2 sides of Jesus there are 2 medallions. The one on the left is the
Virgin Mary. And the other one on the right is the Archangel Gabriel. He is
holding his staff. But very interestingly there is one more man kneeling down in
front of Jesus. He is thought to be Leo VI.
Leo VI was an emperor from the 9th century. And he was a notable Byzantine
Emperor. He is the author of two important books. One of which was the Basilica
and the other was the Tactica. The first one was like a law book and the other one
was a war book. He was not very successful from the military point of view, but he
was adored to be a prominent Emperor. By his followers and he was very unlucky
with his private life. He had to marry 4 times until he had a son. Each time he
remarried the church was against it, but he did remarry. Only in the 4th marriage he
was able to have a son. But the church did not want to baptize the boy unless he
would divorce.
So he divorced. The boy was baptized and then he remarried. And to ask for
forgiveness from God he made a big donation to the church. And he asked the
mosaic artist to make a mosaic panel of himself, while kneeling down in front of
Jesus. While begging so, Jesus is doing the gesture of blessing. So he is forgiven.

This is the Imperial gate just like the Byzantine emperors did, We are going to
enter into the main section the Naos of the church through the Imperial gate.
Look at these beautiful gigantic size wooden doors! It would be impossible to
open and close these doors often. It wouldn't be easy to move them. But how did
they close the doors? You see the hooks. The hooks were used to hang some
heavy curtains. So curtains were functioning like doors in here.
See how worn the marble is here. Now this is the Naos.

This is not the first church which was built with a dome. There were buildings with
domes from before. But the two architects of this building Anthemius and Isidorus
were trying such a big dome for the first time ever. And they thought they would be
able to hold this dome up here. But they were mistaken. 20 years after the
construction was completed with an earthquake the dome fell down. The dome had
to be rebuilt. The earlier dome was shallow the second time that they built the
dome they made it higher than the previous one. Like six-seven meters higher than
the earlier one. So that it would be more durable.
You know 55.60 meters meters would be equal to approximately a 17-story
building. In other words a 17-floor apartment building would fit underneath here.
The Statue of Liberty from New York will fit in here.
How would you cover the top of a rectangular building with a dome? Impossible.
That's why the architects had to add two more half domes in the two sides of the
main dome, so that these one big dome and two half domes would cover the top of
the rectangle.
The dome is still the weakest part of the building. There were some other
damages throughout the centuries but they always restored. Starting from the 9th
century continuing until the 19th century either. By the Byzantines or the Ottomans,
in order to strengthen the durability of the dome, some additional buttresses from
the 4 sides of the buildings were added. These buttresses were not built at the same
time. Some were built by the Byzantines and some others were built by the
Ottomans. So they don't look alike. They are in different sizes and in different
shapes. Some of them are flying buttresses. They are supporting the building with a
connection of an arch. But the others are massive. The others are bulk. Thanks to
these buttresses, that the dome is still standing on top of the building.

As a 1500-year-old building Hagia Sophia has always required big restorations.

So restoration is an essential part of Hagia Sophia.

There is a special section on the floor. This kind of floor covering is called as opus
sectile – popular in the ancient and medieval Roman world where materials were cut
and inlaid into walls and floors to make a picture or pattern. Obviously this place was
meant to be a special place. It is also called as Omphalion. Tthis place was used
for the coronation ceremonies of the emperors.

They used 107 columns in here. 40 of these columns are in this floor and 67 are
up in the galleries. These are the columns that hold up the building. Especially the
Capitals are very beautiful. It is like lacework. Imagine one block of marble, by
using some drilling techniques, they are making some little holes and it looks like
lacework.
Actually they carve achantus leaves (the symbol of immortality). There there are
two scrolls on the two sides together with the initials of the emperor Justinian and
his wife Theodora. Right in the middle these are typical Byzantine style capitals.

In the eastern end there is a big apse - a part of the church which is going out of
the building, making a curve towards outside of the building. That was the apse of
the building. In the Greek Orthodox Church in front of the apse is the wall of the
icons – iconostasis. And there are doors on it. And the section behind the wall of
icons is the holy section. Preparations for the rituals are all made here. Common
people cannot go there. Common people can stay here in the Naos.
And the two narthexes at the entrance were the sections in which the non-
baptized people were permitted to enter.
In the four corners of the dome there are four pendentives (парус). On each
pendentive there is a 6 winged angel. These angels are the guardians of the throne
of God. And they are named as the Seraphim angels. In the Ottoman times the
faces were all covered. Only recently during the restoration work one of the faces
was open.
The two angels in the Western pendentives are replicas. Originally they were built
as mosaics but not anymore. In the dome today we see some calligraphy. This
calligraphy is from the 19th century but before the Turkish period obviously in the
center of the main dome, at least, there should have been a cross there, or maybe
the face of Jesus, as well it was made with mosaics.
 The notable calligraphy artist Mustafa Izzet Efendi did this calligraphy. There
are the verses from the Holy Quran. These verses are about light.
In the side nave there, there is another additional building from the Muslim
period. It's a library. The library was added here in the early 18th century. It was
built by Sultan Mahmud I. He was one of the Ottoman Sultans who had great
interest in boks. That's why he is known to be the Ottoman Sultan who built the
maximum number of libraries all around the Ottoman Empire.
He was also an artist of seals. As a hobby he was making seals. Sultan Mahmud I
was selling these seals and with the money that he was earning in a hidden way
without using his name he was giving this money to the poor people. He was making
donations. The library here had thousands of books. And the interior of the library is
covered with beautiful tiles from Iznik. The books in here were all sent to the
Sulemaniye Library.

The original lighting of the Byzantine period was much above these lights. So in
other words these lights are from the Turkish period. Generally speaking, we can
say that the lighting was more celestial (небесный, божественный,
великолепный) in the Byzantine times. And in the Ottoman times the lights were
brought down to more humanitarian levels. We know that in the Byzantine times
there were approximately 100 people, who were in charge of the lights only.
These lights either in the Byzantine period or the Ottoman times were always oil
candles. You see these glass cases. They would put some water in it first, and then
some drops of olive oil with a wick, and they would burn them by hand one by one.
When the olive oil ran out the light went off.

While converting the Hagia Sophia into a mosque there were a few technical
problems. Of course one of these problems was about the direction of the building.
As a general rule, Greek Orthodox churches face the east, so the main apse of the
church would be in the direction of the east. It wouldn't be good for a Muslim
mosque, because Muslim mosques should face the direction of Mecca Kaaba. The
Mecca direction from Istanbul is in the southeast.
 So how did they solve this problem? They added the special prayer niche for
the Imam at the bottom of the main apps. But not in the center it is off-centered to
face the Mecca direction. The other technical problem is about the mosaics. The
figures, human figures in the mosaics in the first few centuries after converting the
churches into mosques, Ottomans whitewashed the faces in the mosaics or the
frescoes. This helped but it required a lot of redoing.
From the 18th century onwards we notice that instead of painting them frequently.
They developed a special coat of plaster to cover the whole mosaic, in a way
the mosaics were even preserved better than ever.

So after converting a church into a mosque there was the pulpit for the Imam on
Fridays. The Imam would give his sermon from there. The official sermon on behalf
of the Sultan and then go back to his mihrab, the prayer niche for the Imam. He
would resume the prayer from there.
In every mosque we also have a müezzin. It is the name of the person who used
to climb up the minaret and call people to prayer and come here take a special seat
in the Muezzin's Lodge. And he would assist the Imam during the prayer. And a
little farther up, there just next to the main apse, is the additional Royal Box. Royal
Box means this is the place where the Ottoman Sultans would pray.
When an ottoman sultan picked this mosque to pray, he would come to the lodge
special pavilion, which would be just outside. He would take a rest there for a while.
With a connection from inside he would come in the Royal Box and pray from there.

Ottoman Empire is one of the longest-lasting empires in history - 624 years

altogether. And there were totally 36 Ottoman Sultans. Ottoman Sultans had
wonderful education. Some of them were writers, some of them were warriors, some
of them were sportsman and some of them were artists. Here in the apse area this
is like an exhibition for the artwork of the Ottoman Sultans. Those Ottoman Sultans,
who wrote calligraphy, the artwork is exhibited in here.
 In the two corners of Hagia Sophia we have 2 of marble urns gigantic size.
Imagine one block of marble like this, shaped like an urn from outside. And it is
hollowed out inside. And these date back to the Hellenistic period.
Hellenistic period means the 3rd century the 2nd century BC in the Aegean
region of Turkey. There is a Hellenistic Kingdom called as the Kingdom of
Pergamum. And these marble urns were brought here from Pergamum. Only in the
2nd half of the 16th century. After bringing them in Istanbul they didn't know first
where to use them and later they decided to put them in the two corners of the
Hagia Sophia. They did a tap in here and in the special days in Islam they would put
some sherbet, a fruit drink, in it. And they would deliver it to people as refreshment.

According to the legend, that in the times when Justinian was pushing the
architects to finish the building as quickly as possible the workers were working
around the clock, with no interruption in shifts. One day some of the workers would
like to go for a lunch break and they asked the son of the architect to guard the tools
in here. They tell the boy not to leave anywhere. Then an angel comes here and
sees the boy. And he says: “Hey what are you doing here?” - he says: “I'm guarding
the tools.”
“Where are the workers?” - “At lunch break.”- He says: “go and get them.”
“I can't. I have to stay here.”- he says.
“Don't worry. I do the guarding, you bring them.” - So the boy goes to his father
and tells him the story. And the father says: “Is the angel still there?” - “Yes, he is
there.” - “Ok. Let him stay there. He will protect the building.”
So from then on, no one comes back here and the angel is kept here. So that is
the angel that makes the wishes of people today. There is a wish hole in here. You
make a wish and then you put your thumb inside, and without moving the feet,
without taking the thumb out, you need to make a full circle like 360 degrees. If you
can manage all these your wish comes true.

The gallery part of the Hagia Sophia was used for women both in the Byzantine
and Ottoman times.
 There was a special place with a seat for the Empress. But there was also
another time in which the whole royal family had their rituals, had their practices in
the right wing of the galleries. There as well as a general rule, the ceilings were
covered with mosaics. But in some parts of the galleries the mosaics have not
survived to our day. That's why they have been plastered over and they painted the
plaster in frescoes in the look of the original mosaics.

The largest mosaic panel in the Hagia Sophia is a 13th century mosaic art. All of
the ceilings and some of the walls were covered with mosaics. In the mosaic art they
never use any paint or any brushes, it's only Stones. Green is from the green stone.
Red is from the red stone. Only the yellow in the mosaic is obtained with gold leaves
together with glass. They cut the glass and the stones in cubic forms. Each piece is
called as tessarea and by fixing these tiny pieces of tessarea next to each other
with a glue type of mortar, they obtain the picture. The finer the tesserae pieces are,
the higher density we would have in the picture. This is how it goes.

THE BAPTİSTRY
The marble basin here was used for baptistry. And it is the largest basin ever in
the whole city of Istanbul. It is thought that this may be even older than the Hagia
Sophia itself.

The 3rd Hagia Sophia was built on top of the previous one at a lower level down
below from here we can see the remaining parts from the atrium, from the courtyard
of the 2nd Hagia Sophia. See these are the bases for a row of columns. There and
behind that was the colonnade, the sheltered walkway of the courtyard and you can
also see the freezes with sheep on them.