Shafts of Light at the Hagia Sophia
After some time in line, I was finally inside the Hagia Sophia. Just like the nearby Sultan Ahmed Mosque, the Hagia Sophia is also very spacious inside. Inside you can get the feeling of a church. That is if you ignore the large Arabic calligraphy on display here. At lot of the original structure of the Christian church is still here. Byzantine architecture of churches tend to have large central areas, compared to the more modern cruciform layout of churches. Looking up, you can see the domes which have small windows which let the light in. It was very bright outside and you can see shafts of light forming inside the mosque.
Inside the Hagia Sophia
Compared to the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, you can feel just how old this place is. I think it is a testament of how much the structure was preserved despite all of the modifications that was done to it. I thought this is all so much to take in. There are technically two eras we are covering here. The first is the Byzantine era and the second one is the Ottoman era. This all happened hundreds of years ago and it is amazing to just be in a place where both can still be seen and appreciated.
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