This is one historic place that one must not miss to visit. It's an architectural marvel of Istanbul. As such I find all the mosque of Istanbul very stunning and unique from one another. The entry ticket is expensive but it is worth it. The mosque is located in Sultanahmet square which is the most prominent place of Istanbul and many important other places to see are also here like the Basilica Cistern, Topkapi Palace, Blue Mosque, and many others. One day is not enough here, you need minimum 3 days if you want to visit every attraction well in the Sultanahmet square.

On day one we were not sure if we should do it or not. We visited the blue mosque so then thought it would be overdose of Mosque visits so let's skip it. But then through the journey it kept playing on my mind that after coming till here I am not visiting this Mosque, that's not very wise of me. On the last day of our trip, we had kept the morning free for last minute shopping, and I decided that we skip that and rather visit the Hagia Sophia Mosque, and I must say it was the wisest thing to do. There was a long queue and I was nervous if we would finish it on time or not, because we had to reach to the hotel by a certain time and complete our check out formalities also, but thankfully everything went well, the line was moving fast and we had enough time to visit the mosque as well as later on do some shopping in the market nearby.

Both the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia are completely different, and their history is also interesting. Blue Mosque was constructed much later than this one. Also, the Blue Mosque was constructed in the time when Ottoman empire was in power, whereas the Hagia Sophia was constructed in the 6th century by the Greeks, and it was not built as a Mosque. It was built a Church, which then in the 15th century got converted in to a Mosque when the Ottomans came into power. In between for a long time it was neither a Church or a Mosque, it was converted in to a Museum. It's only in 2020 that it got converted back to Mosque, which is very recent just 5 years back, and it is also a UNESCO world heritage site.

That's the view from level one down.

You can see some very fine intricate designs on the walls, ceiling and pillars

These chandeliers have a common design in all the mosques.

You need to be well covered to visit

I will stop here for today and continue with part 2 tomorrow.

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