Ayasofya/Hagia Sophia

After walking around so much yesterday, my energy levels were severely depleted this morning.

Speaking of yesterday, here's some clouds on our way out of Ankara.
They looked painted on!

I was planning to get up for breakfast at 9:30 and go back to sleep after, but found the idea of getting out of bed when my alarm went off entirely unappetizing, so went back to sleep immediately. I ended up sleeping until 2:00, at which point I still felt massively tired but not so much that I couldn't get out of bed. It took us awhile to get ready, but we headed out for the Ayasofya around 4:00. We had considered combining a visit there with a stop at the Basilica Cistern, but I knew my body wouldn't put up with that much so we opted just for the church/mosque/museum.

For anyone who's not been to İstanbul, let me tell you a secret: it is super hilly.

Exhibit A: A hill.

You will walk up hills big and small, so any distance should be taken with a grain of salt, as 500 m on flat ground is rather shorter than 500 m on incline. The Ayasofya was on top of one such hill, naturally, but we got there with relatively little issue.

Approached from the back, which meant we saw this
lovely building.

And this amusing sign: we're sorry, too?

It's 25 TL to get in, tied for most expensive place we've visited with Ephesus, and it is Turkey's most-visited monument. It was built by Emperor Justinian I in the 530s and was Christendom's most magnificent church, apparently, until the 1400s, when it was converted into a mosque by the Ottomans.

An intervening ruler: Empress Zoe's sarcophagus

It remained a mosque until 1931, when Atatürk started the process of changing it into a museum, which officially opened in 1935.

In front of the Ayasofya, after we'd visited

Sorry about the strangers in the background, Mother.
Don't worry, there's a stranger-free one later on!

The building is huge, and incredibly spacious; unlike most domed structures, there's no visible pillars holding the nested domes up, so it looks like it's floating.

This does not include the biggest
central dome, because I could not fit
it in the shot.

Here's part of it, though

And more!

There was some major renovation going on in part of the building, which definitely impeded the view, but even so, it was quite impressive.

Hello, gigantic ugly scaffolds.

It was also impossible to take photos that captured the scale, so you'll just have to believe me.

Everything that's painted used to be mosaics, which must have been quite magnificent.

Imagine it all shiny!

Some of the paint is flaking off now, too :(

Gigantic hallways of mosaics, once upon a time

Some of the mosaics are still intact, though,
like part of these crosses

I will admit, I was less floored than I was expecting. Some of it has been restored, but a lot is rather faded, and many of the mosaics have disappeared. With some imagination, you can see how incredibly awe-inspiring it once was, but in its current state, I found it merely "very nice". I know, I'm a heretic. I'm sorry.

Like this mosaic: pretty, but depleted

Jesus is looking pretty good there, though 

A no-longer-mosaic'ed seraph, one of 4 at each corner of the
ceiling 

This mosaic was magnificent

I felt sorry for the guy around the corner, though.
No one was taking any notice of him!

Yes, this was beautiful, too, obviously.

Mary and baby Jesus, above the mihrap.
It was a very interesting building for its mix of
religious iconography! Props to the Muslims
back in the day for not destroying all the Christian
mosaics.

The afore-mentioned mihrap

Jesus being offered some stuff from some dudes,
above the doorway on the way out (I'm real tired, y'all).

We were there at the very end of the opening hours, so right before we left there were very few people in it, which did increase its grandeur somewhat. I'm sure without the construction scaffolding, it would have been even more impressive, so I hope to return in a few years!

Slightly better idea of scale, maybe?

Check out how empty it is!

I am extremely exhausted right now, so I will not regale you with tales of what we did after. Plus, well, all I did was go back to the hotel and lie like a lump, then we went out and had kebap for dinner.

Much of the stone in the building was smooth and curved from
millennia of being walked on. So cool!

More domes

I liked the contrast of cool marble
and warm murals

Some gorgeous stained glass

It was pretty exciting stuff. Tomorrow, we're waking up early to go to Topkapı, which is supposed to take 3 hours but I may run out of steam before then.

The Blue Mosque at sunset, courtesy of Marcos

We've got nothing planned for the afternoon, though, so I can come back here and catch up on rest!

Stranger-free photo! Insane gold
detailing.