The Haghia Sophia

Luckily, we didn't have to wait in any of the ridiculously long ques to get into the Haghia Sophia because our tour guide had it covered. "The church of holy wisdom" was absolutely beautiful from the outside and the inside. It is one of the world's greatest architectural achievements (according to Tarik!). It was a church first, then the Muslims took over Istanbul and added minarets and domes to make it a mosque. Then Mustafa Kemal, Ataturk or the Father of Turkey who turned Turkey from rule under the Ottoman Empire to a Republic in 1923, had to decide whether to change it back to a church in order to gain acceptance from the Christian West or leave it as a mosque. In the end, he decided to make it a museum...and so it stands today as a museum.

Standing outside the Haghia Sophia

The minute we stepped into the naturally air conditioned building, I was awed by the immense size of the main chamber. And the decorations! The tesserae (gold mosaic glass) and other ceramic fragments created the most beautiful friezes on the ceilings and domes. Did you know the main dome is 56 meters tall? That's like...184 feet or something! Here are some quick, interesting facts for you:

• The largest dome is 184 feet high
• There was an earthquake that caused the dome to crumble and collapse in 1344 so an architect was called in to fix it. However, he was from the Asian side of Turkey, where sea sand used in building dries at a faster rate than Marmara (Western Turkish sea) sand dries. He miscalculated and the dome is now smaller in diameter than the original was. 
• Churches are traditionally in a cross or rectangular shape. The Haghia Sophia was created in a square. In order to "fix" this dilemma, five demi-domes were carved into the ceiling and 64 Romanesque pillars were added to the interior to make it seem like the building was a rectangle. It worked!

I was awestruck by the size of Haghia Sophia

The decorations were all so beautiful

          

We spent two hours exploring the cavernous interior of the church/mosque/museum and then hit the streets for lunch. Tarik took us to a very typical "cafeteria" called The Pudding Shop. I had the best lamb meat ever! So yeah, the food was really great, as usual. I think that this is my new favourite type of food. Adios Italian! 

Over lunch, Tarik told us more about himself and the government in Turkey. I was especially interested in that, due to my Senior Research Paper. There are elections coming up in two weeks and he supports the party that wants to stop the government giving social aid through coal or food packages to poor families. Instead, he supports the party that wants to give money so they can choose coal one month when they need it, or food another month. He really advocated the protection of people's honor. Standing in line to receive a package of coal is degrading to a person's honor, but wiring money directly to a poor person's bank account where nobody else will know they have received government aid, protects it. We talked about how the government is trying to become more religious again, something I didn't know. It is very recent because in my paper, I ended at the time period when the Republic of Turkey was trying to secularize completely. Tarik's aunt, Turkan Saylan, was a very famous woman who was like the Mother Theresa for modern Turkey. She advocated for education for girls as well as putting a stop to forced religion in schools. Her resistance to the government grew louder and stronger and so she was declared a terrorist and her house raided. And she was a 74 year old woman battling cancer at the time! However, her message was clear and she was and still is backed by a number of followers. Here is a link with more information about her and info about a TV show about her life: http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=8216turkan8217-biopic-of-a-great-woman-hits-the-screens-2011-05-20

When we finished lunch and had our Turkish tea (I opted out...), we were on the cobbled streets again...