Holy Wisdom on the First Hill
You come at it from Sultanahmet Square, past the obelisks and the tulip beds, and it rises before you as a mass of pink-grey stone, buttresses and domes that seems less like a building than a geological event. This is Hagia Sophia, officially the Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque, on the first hill of Istanbul's historic peninsula, where the Sea of Marmara, the Bosphorus and the Golden Horn meet. It is the third church built on this site by the Eastern Roman Empire, completed in AD 537 under Justinian I, and it is considered the epitome of Byzantine architecture. It has been a church, a mosque, a museum from 1935 to 2020, and since 2020 a working mosque again. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site as part of the Historic Areas of Istanbul. Whatever your plans in the city, this is the building that explains them.
Stand Under a Dome That Changed Architecture
Nothing prepares you for the interior. The central dome sits on pendentives, among the first fully pendentive domes in the world, and the space it covers was the largest interior in the world when the church opened for worship on 27 December 537. Stand on the ground floor and look up; then look at the walls, clad in marble split from single blocks and matched symmetrically, white from Marmara Island, green porphyry from Eğriboz, pink from Afyon, yellow from North Africa. Look for the columns, brought from ancient cities including Aspendos, Ephesus, Baalbek and Tarsus, with columns from the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus set in the naves. Then find the mosaics: plant and geometric patterns from the 6th century, figured mosaics from after the Iconoclast period, made with gold, silver, glass, terracotta and coloured stone. On the tympanon wall in the northern part, the portrait mosaic of Patriarch John Chrysostom is visible. On the floor, right of the naos, is the omphalion, the circular stone-inlaid area where Byzantine emperors were crowned.
- Walk the length of the building from the inner to the outer narthex, tracing the basilical plan with its three naves, one apse and galleries above.
- Find the Ottoman additions layered over the Byzantine fabric: the mihrab, the minbar, the minarets, the sultan's office, the shadirvan (ablution fountain), the library and the madrasah.
- In the west garden, look for the carved pieces from the second church, built by Theodosius II in 415 and destroyed in the Nika revolts of 532. Excavations found its propylon steps, column bases and reliefs about two metres below ground.
- Remember this is an active mosque. Dress and behave as you would in any place of worship; access may be restricted during prayer times.
How to Make the Most of Your Visit
Go early. The published hours open at 08:00 in summer (1 April–1 October) and 09:00 in winter (1 October–1 April), and the box office closes at 19:00 in both seasons; the building is open every day. Arriving near opening gives you the nave before the crowds thicken. Give the building at least a couple of hours: a walking route that pairs Hagia Sophia with Topkapı Palace should take three to five hours, and that is without lingering. If you are in the city in spring, April is the month for tulips, which bloom from late March to early May and fill Sultanahmet Park and Gülhane Park just outside. Note that Hagia Sophia is not included in the Museum Pass; entry is ticketed separately.
The highlight not to miss is the dome itself, seen from directly beneath the centre of the nave. Everything else in the building, the marbles, the mosaics, the Ottoman additions, is arranged around the experience of looking up into it.
What Else Is Within Walking Distance
You are in the middle of the densest concentration of monuments in the city. Sultanahmet Square holds the Blue Mosque (Sultanahmet Mosque) and the obelisks of At Meydanı, with the Museum of Islamic Art along its side, and the Basilica Cistern is nearby. Topkapı Palace is a short walk away; take the road behind Hagia Sophia, where there are nicely restored houses. A little further is the small Hagia Sophia with its garden, and uphill from there the Sokollu Mehmet mosque complex, with top-notch tiles inside. Walk or take the tram to Eminönü for the New Mosque, the Egyptian Bazaar beside it, and the Rüstem Pasha mosque, on a raised platform near an old clothes market, where you may have to ask directions. When you need to sit down, the waterpipe cafés of Yeniçeriler Caddesi near the Grand Bazaar, including Çorlulu Ali Paşa and Koca Sinan Paşa Türbesi in their secluded internal courts, are close at hand.
Start With the First Hill
Build your Istanbul days around this building rather than fitting it in between other things. Check the published hours for the season you are travelling in, set aside a morning, and let the first hill do the rest: the palace, the square, the bazaars and the waterfront at Eminönü are all within a walk of the door. The city rewards the visitor who slows down here first.