Fifteen Centuries of Ayasofya

On one side of Sultanahmet Square stands the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, on the other Ayasofya (Hagia Sophia), with its pinkish walls, four minarets and broad dome. The present building opened in 537, so it has been standing for more than fifteen centuries. Over that long life it was the largest place of worship of an imperial capital, saw its dome collapse and be rebuilt several times, was converted into a mosque after 1453, became a museum by a decision of 1934 and reopened for worship in 2020. Its official name today is Ayasofya-i Kebir Cami-i Şerifi, the Grand Ayasofya Mosque.

This article tells the building's story in order, points out which traces of each period you can still see, and sums up how to visit Ayasofya as a mosque. It focuses on the building itself and its documented history, not on political debates.

Three Buildings on One Hill

Ayasofya rises on the first hill of the historic peninsula, at the centre of the ancient city. The first building on this spot was a timber-roofed basilica built in the 4th century. It is usually credited to Constantine I, but according to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam it was only finished under his son Constantius II and opened on 15 February 360. It was ruined by fire during a riot in 404. Theodosius II rebuilt it with five aisles, and the second building opened on 10 October 415. This second church burned in turn during the Nika riot of January 532, together with part of the palace and other public buildings.

You can still see traces of the second building. In the mid-1930s, excavations in the western forecourt led by the German archaeologist Alfons Maria Schneider uncovered columns, capitals and carved marble blocks, which now lie beside the main entrance and in the garden. The excavations also showed that the floor of the second building lay about two metres below today's level. Take a look at these stones in the excavated area as you approach the entrance. They are the clearest reminder that the building you see is actually the third on the same site.

A Dome Raised in Five Years

After the Nika fire, Emperor Justinian I wanted a building larger than and different from its predecessors. He gave the job to two men from western Anatolia, Anthemius of Tralles (today's Aydın) and Isidore of Miletus. Materials were requested from every corner of the empire, and worked pieces from older buildings were gathered too. Eight large red porphyry columns came from Heliopolis in Egypt, other columns from the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, from Cyzicus on the Kapıdağ peninsula and from Baalbek in Syria, along with marble of many kinds and colours. The sources say 10,000 workers were employed. The building was completed in just under six years and opened with a grand ceremony on 27 December 537. The historian Procopius, who described the emperor's buildings, gave it a long passage in his work.

The real daring lay in the dome. The plan was essentially a longitudinal basilica, but the two architects covered its central space with a shallow dome some 31-33 metres across. The transition from the dome to the square below was made with pendentives, curved triangular surfaces. The dome's thrust to the east and west was taken by half domes stepping down and growing smaller, and to the north and south by the piers, arches and vaults of the galleries. The result was a single uninterrupted space under a dome resting on four great piers.

A few figures help to grasp the scale. The building measures roughly 100 by 70 metres. The dome rises 55.60 metres above the floor, and because centuries of repairs have pushed it away from a perfect circle towards an ellipse, its inner diameter varies between 30.80 and 32.60 metres. Forty ribs run down from the crown between the windows to the pendentives, carrying the weight to the piers like the spokes of an umbrella. There are 107 columns, forty on the ground floor and sixty-seven in the galleries. Most are monolithic and were brought from buildings older than Ayasofya itself. Inside, the brick walls are faced with marble and porphyry of many colours. Some marble slabs were cut in two and set side by side, so that they form symmetrical patterns like the pages of an open book. Look out for these slabs especially on the walls of the inner narthex.

As the TDV stresses, carrying this weight was always hard for the building. What has kept Ayasofya standing are the large buttresses added outside in both the Byzantine and Ottoman periods. When you walk around it and see those thick, sloping masses leaning against the walls, remember that you are looking at the traces of a structural struggle fifteen centuries long.

A Dome That Fell and Was Rebuilt

The dome faced its first big test twenty-one years after the opening. Weakened also by the earthquake of 557, its eastern part collapsed on 7 May 558. The repair was taken on by Isidore the Younger, nephew of the original architect Isidore. He raised the dome about 6.25 metres higher than before and used lighter materials. The building reopened on 24 December 562. The forty windows around the base of the dome both lighten its weight and light the interior.

Earthquakes kept coming in later centuries. Cracks that appeared in the dome in the earthquake of 869 were repaired the following year. In the earthquake of 986 part of the dome fell again, and after a six-year repair by the architect Trdat the building reopened on 13 May 994. In 1204, during the Fourth Crusade, the occupiers of the city badly damaged Ayasofya. Under Andronikos II in 1317 the walls were reinforced from outside with buttresses, but on 19 May 1346 the great eastern arch and part of the dome collapsed once more. Impoverished Byzantium could only repair the damage in 1354, with help collected from the public. The Spanish envoy Clavijo, who came to the city in 1402, wrote that he found the building run-down and neglected.

1453 and the First Century as a Mosque

After the conquest of Istanbul the building, then the city's largest place of worship, was converted into a mosque by Mehmed II, and the first Friday prayer was held here. Mehmed prevented its destruction, endowed it as the first work of his own foundations and built a madrasa beside it. The name was not changed and it continued to be known as Ayasofya. According to the TDV, from 1453 to 1934 Ayasofya served as the city's principal congregational mosque.

The first minaret was built of timber on top of the southern of the two small towers beside the western half dome, and stood until the repairs of 1574. The minaret that stands out today for its red brick is often dated to the reign of Mehmed II, but according to the TDV it was more probably built under Bayezid II. In the reign of Süleyman the Magnificent two bronze candlesticks brought from Buda were given verse inscriptions and placed on either side of the mihrab in 1526. Look towards the mihrab and you will still see them there.

During Ramadan, above all at the tarawih prayers, on the Night of Power attended by the sultan and at the festival prayers, Ayasofya welcomed very large congregations. The TDV notes that ordinary people also set up endowments for the upkeep of the mosque. The 17th-century tiles depicting the Kaaba and Medina in the passage to the right of the mihrab are reminders of such endowments.

Mimar Sinan's Buttresses and the Tombs

Ayasofya received great attention under Selim II. The houses that surrounded and damaged it were cleared, and Mimar Sinan reinforced the building with external buttresses, averting the danger of collapse. Of the thick supporting walls on all four sides today, some are Byzantine and some Ottoman. Another minaret was built in the same period, and the TDV considers it reasonable to attribute one of the stone minarets to Sinan because of its resemblance to the minarets of the Selimiye in Edirne. Under Murad III two more minarets were added, along with a minbar, a preacher's chair and a raised platform, and two large jars carved from single blocks of marble, found at Bergama, were brought and set inside the mosque.

The building of sultans' tombs around Ayasofya also began at this time. The first was for Selim II. Work started in 1573-1574; when the sultan died before it was finished, he was first buried in a tent pitched on the same spot and was moved into the tomb when it was completed in 1576-1577. Sinan's tomb is square with bevelled corners outside and forms an octagonal gallery inside, covered by a double dome. The tile panels in its entrance portico are counted among the finest examples of 16th-century İznik tilework. The original of the left-hand panel was removed and taken to France on the pretext of completing its missing parts, and is now in the Louvre, while the one in place is a copy.

Then came the tomb built for Murad III by the architect Davud Ağa, the tomb of Mehmed III in the early 17th century and a tomb for princes. The Byzantine baptistery was used as the tomb of Mustafa I in 1639 and of Sultan İbrahim in 1648. With these tombs and the additions of Selim II, who had no complex of his own, Ayasofya took on the look of an imperial mosque complex.

Additions of the 18th and 19th Centuries

In 1739 Mahmud I built a library in the side aisle, between two buttresses. It is separated from the prayer hall by a showy bronze grille in the Turkish Baroque style, and has tiles of different periods on its walls and painted decoration on its cupboards. The sultan endowed the Cağaloğlu Hamam for its upkeep. In 1740 he added an elegant ablution fountain in the courtyard, a primary school and, at the back, a soup kitchen whose broad-eaved gate is counted among the finest examples of the Turkish Baroque. The inscriptions of these buildings were written by Moralı Beşir Ağa, Chief Eunuch of the palace.

The most extensive Ottoman restoration was carried out between 1847 and 1849 by the Swiss architect Gaspare Fossati on the orders of Sultan Abdülmecid. The dome, vaults and columns were strengthened, a new royal pavilion where the sultan rested on his visits and a new royal lodge were built, and a timekeeper's room was added beside the courtyard gate. The huge round panels, about 7.5 metres across, that you see from everywhere inside were hung during this restoration. In the calligraphy of Kazasker Mustafa İzzet Efendi they bear the names of God, the Prophet Muhammad, the four caliphs and Hasan and Hüseyin. During the works the mosaics on the walls and vaults were uncovered and drawn. The building reopened in a ceremony on 13 July 1849. In the earthquake of 1894 cracks appeared in the walls and some mosaic surfaces fell along with their plaster.

The Museum Years

By a Council of Ministers decision dated 24 November 1934 Ayasofya ceased to be a mosque and became a museum, opening to visitors on 1 February 1935. The carpets were lifted from the floor during this period. Thomas Whittemore, who obtained permission in 1931 on behalf of the Byzantine Institute of America, began uncovering the mosaics, work that continued until 1970. The large calligraphic panels taken down in the 1930s were later hung back in place.

The building of the madrasa founded by Mehmed II, much altered over the centuries, was demolished in 1936. Its site was cleared in 1985-1986 to reveal the foundations, and in 2017 work began to rebuild the madrasa in its original form. During the museum years the royal lodge section was opened for prayer briefly in 1980 and again in 1991, so that Ayasofya partly served as a mosque once more.

A Mosque Again Since 2020

In July 2020, after the Council of State annulled the decision of 24 November 1934, a Presidential Decree dated 10 July 2020 transferred Ayasofya to the Presidency of Religious Affairs and opened it for worship. The building reopened with the Friday prayer held on 24 July 2020 under the name Ayasofya-i Kebir Cami-i Şerifi, returning to service as a mosque eighty-six years after it became a museum.

Since 15 January 2024, under a visitor plan prepared by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the entrances for worshippers and for foreign visitors touring the historic mosque for cultural purposes have been separated. According to the ministry's announcement, foreign visitors enter through a tunnel and ramp beneath the minaret on the south side, go up to the gallery level, see the prayer hall and the Ottoman additions from above, can study the Byzantine mosaics in the gallery, and leave by the ramp on the northeast side. An audio system accessed by QR code lets them listen through earphones without disturbing worshippers. This visit is charged for foreign visitors. Check the current fee and entry arrangements in official announcements before you go.

Visiting Etiquette for a Mosque

Ayasofya is above all a mosque today, and your visit should respect that. In short, keep the following in mind.

• Prayer comes first at prayer times. Plan your visit between prayers and avoid Friday midday.
• Women cover their hair, and everyone wears modest clothing that covers shoulders and knees.
• Shoes come off before you enter the prayer hall, and the carpets are not walked on in shoes.
• Keep quiet inside, do not walk in front of people praying, and take care not to photograph worshippers.
• If you want to avoid the crowds, early morning is generally calmer.

For general advice on mosque visits, see also Radar's article on what to know before visiting a mosque.

What to Look For Inside

Whichever floor you visit from, start by looking up at the dome. The forty windows around its base are the legacy of the sixth-century rebuilding. Light entering through them filters between the ribs that carry the dome, so that it seems not to rest on its supports at all. In the pendentives at the four corners of the dome you will notice winged figures whose faces were covered with gilded ornaments in the Ottoman period.

Look at the mihrab. Because the axis of the building does not line up exactly with the direction of Mecca, the mihrab stands not in the centre of the apse but slightly to its right. On either side of it are the bronze candlesticks brought from Buda under Süleyman, and to its right the marble minbar from the reign of Murad III. As you move from the south aisle towards the mihrab you will see the marble muezzins' platform, raised about three metres above the floor.

Next to the platform is a square area of floor made of coloured stone circles. Associated in Byzantine sources with coronation ceremonies, it contains sixteen circles in different colours. The two large marble jars near the western entrance were brought from Bergama under Murad III. They date from the Hellenistic period, and the larger is said to hold about 1200 litres. In the south aisle, look for the bronze grille of the library of Mahmud I.

Study the calligraphy of the eight huge panels on the walls up close, as they are monumental examples of Ottoman calligraphy. At the western end of the north aisle stands the so-called "sweating column", covered with a bronze plate and the subject of many popular tales. Treat it as folklore, since none of the stories is based on documents.

The gallery is linked to the ground floor not by stairs but by a spiral ramp paved with stones, which according to the sources made it easier to carry the empress up on her throne. In the gallery a green stone circle set into the floor marks where the empress's throne stood in the Byzantine period, and from here you can see the whole prayer hall. The mosaic panels in the gallery include portraits of emperors and empresses. The same gallery has a tombstone placed in the name of the Venetian doge Enrico Dandolo. During the restoration of 1847-1849 it turned out not to be a real grave but a memorial plaque.

There is plenty to see outside too. Look at the thickness of the buttresses, the eaves of the ablution fountain of Mahmud I in the courtyard, the primary school and the tombs. In particular, study the tiles in the entrance portico of the tomb of Selim II and compare them with the copied panel on the left. The stones in the excavated area beside the main entrance are pieces of the second building.

Seeing It Together With Its Surroundings

Ayasofya can be combined with many buildings within walking distance in Sultanahmet. Between Ayasofya and the Sultan Ahmed Mosque stands the Haseki Hürrem Sultan Hamam, built by Mimar Sinan for Hürrem Sultan in 1556-1557. This double bath, with its women's and men's sections back to back and of the same size, lies near the remains of the ancient Baths of Zeuxippus and has worked as a hamam again since 2011. Behind Ayasofya begins the Bab-ı Hümayun, the outer gate of Topkapı Palace. At the other end of the square is the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, and a little further on the Basilica Cistern (Yerebatan Sarnıcı).

If you are giving a whole day to this area, Radar's classic Sultanahmet route suggests an order from the Hippodrome to the Süleymaniye. For those who want to follow the Byzantine buildings in particular, there is a separate route on what remains of Byzantine Istanbul. If Sinan's buttresses at Ayasofya make you curious about his other buildings, our article on Mimar Sinan from apprentice to master tells that story. And for a detailed visit to Topkapı Palace, see our article on touring the palace courtyard by courtyard.

One last suggestion. See Ayasofya not only from inside but from a distance too. Looking from the Sultan Ahmed Mosque side of the square, or from the direction of Galata, you best understand how the dome and the four minarets added in Ottoman times together make up a silhouette that is the product of fifteen centuries.

Sources

• TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi, Ayasofya, https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/ayasofya
• TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi, Selim II Türbesi, https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/selim-ii-turbesi
• İBB Kültürel Miras, Ayasofya Türbeleri (II. Selim Türbesi), https://kulturelmiras.ibb.istanbul/ayasofya-turbeleri-ii-selim-turbesi/
• İBB Kültürel Miras, Haseki Hürrem Sultan Hamamı, https://kulturelmiras.ibb.istanbul/haseki-hurrem-sultan-hamami/
• Republic of Türkiye Ministry of Culture and Tourism, press release on the new visitor arrangement at Ayasofya-i Kebir Camii from 15 January, https://basin.ktb.gov.tr/TR-364045/ayasofya-i-kebir-camiinde-yeni-duzenleme-15-ocakta-basliyor.html
• Wikipedia (Turkish), Ayasofya, https://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayasofya