One of the world’s most famous religious buildings, Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia was extraordinary when it was built in the sixth ...

Throughout its centuries-long existence, the Hagia Sophia has been a place of worship for many different religions and ...

There is no other place on Earth where Christian mosaics of saints and Byzantine ... The third church, today’s Hagia Sophia, was built by Justinian I, an ambitious emperor who ordered its ...

And Justinian got exactly what he wanted. The bottom line is that the Hagia Sophia is ancient, built between 532 and 537 AD — and tourists can still set foot inside it and soak in all its glory.