Hagia Sophia: Where Empires Meet and Light Touches the Divine

📍 Address: Sultan Ahmet, Ayasofya Meydanı No 1, 34122 Fatih, Istanbul  🎟 Entry Fee: €25 (or ~850 TL) for foreign visitors (under-8s free); Turkish citizens may attend prayers free in the lower mosque area  🕒 Visiting Hours: Open daily 09:00–19:00 Built in 537 AD as a Byzantine cathedral, converted into a mosque in 1453, later a museum, and reconverted into a mosque in 2020—Hagia Sophia embodies Eastern Roman and Ottoman legacy. Inside, its immense dome (32 m wide, 55 m tall) crowns a vast prayer hall, filled with light from 40 windows—an engineering marvel of its time . Upper-gallery tourists (with tickets) walk through where Byzantine mosaics—such as the Deësis, Seraphim, and Viking-inscription—mix with Ottoman calligraphic medallions, creating a unique spiritual-artistic fusion. ✅ Visiting Tips • Dress code & etiquette: • Women: headscarf (available on-site for €1), shoulders/knees covered • Men: no shorts above knee • Remove shoes before entering prayer hall  • Access note: Tours and guides are not allowed inside; instead, use the free audio guide via QR codes for multilingual context. • Upper gallery only: Foreign tourists can access the gallery with ticket—prayer hall access is reserved for Muslim worshippers during prayer. #旅行酷体验 #历史古迹 #historicallandmarks #localguides #familytrip #极光