Istanbul: Hagia Sophia, and The Blue Mosque

Sorry about the confusing order to these posts, but I'm going to flashback to Istanbul to share with you what I got to see on my day out with Nanette.  (Alan is SO sad he was sick.  Poor guy.) So here we go...

I'll try not to be too Wikipedia on you, but these buildings have SO much facinating history, I'll just keep to the good bits.

Our first stop in Sultan Ahmet (old town Istanbul, on the Asian side of the Bosphorus) was Hagia Sophia.  This massive, gorgeous, testiment to human ingenuity, and the power of faith was almost cripplingly overwhelming for me.  Upon entering, I began to feel that my anxiety over the ocean, and my dislike of Costco might be connected under a larger umbrella of Megalophobia, of the fear of large things. I can only describe the feeling I had as a slight pressure in my lungs and a racing heart beat the whole time we were in there. The reason this building felt so large in comparison to a sky scraper, is because it was designed in an unprecidented way: dome upon dome upon dome with no support system in the middle.  Check it out:




Unfortunately, neither of these pictures really does justice to the enormity of this building.  I guess it's just too big for the camera.

So to continue on about how amazing this place is: it was first built in the 3rd century... that's 1700 years ago! Sometimes my brain hurts just thinking about how ingenious some people are.  They didn't have any sort of crane or forklift or anything to help them build this, and it's architectual design is nothing short of amazing.

But my favorite part is the religious history behind the Hagia Sophia. When it was first built in 360 and for the next 1000 or so years, it was an Orthadox Cathedral, Christian in design.  Then in 1453 when Constantinople was conqured by the Ottomans, they changed it to a mosque.  At that point some of the Christian alters and mosaics were removed or covered, but many remain. In 1935 it was secularized and became a museum. Today, a beautiful mix of Eastern and Western religion and art coexists.  Mosaics of Jesus and other Christian saints cover the walls, while in other places Islamic elements were added, like the round paintings near the base of the domes, and the four minnirettes built outside. It was such a lovely feeling for me to be surrounded by such differing faiths both finding a home in one site of worship.

Constantine             Christ                   Zoe

Still more facinating for me is the trivia surrounding Empress Zoe.  Many of the mosaics on the walls depict Christ and Mary, but one of the mosaics dating back to the 11th Century shows Christ in the center, with Empress Zoe on the right, and her husband Constantine on the left.  Interestingly, the origional heads have been scraped off and replaced with the current ones.  Theory has it that Zoe had her own head placed on the body to the right, and her first husband's head on the body to the left.  And each time Zoe divorced and remarried (3 in total) she had the head of her old husband removed and replaced with her new husband. Pretty egocenteric don't you think?!
On to the Blue Mosque.  Built between 1609 and 1616, the Blue Mosque was built under the reign of Sultan Ahmet, who was looking to out do the Hagia Sophia in grandure.  Though I dont think he accomplished his goal, his color palet is much more to my liking.  The Blue Mosque is still in use today, and at the height of Ramazan, it was very crowded with tourists and worshipers alike. There is a seperate entrance for tourists, along with headscarves and floor length skirts for hussies who are dressed inappropriatly (like me).  It's a beautiful building, and I very much enjoyed gathering together with the worshippers, but I also felt like I was intruding a bit, so we didn't stay long.



We saw a few other sights while we were there, but I didnt get any good pictures, so I'll wait to tell you about them until I go back to Istanbul with Alan.