4-20 AYASOFYA

At the top of the things to see for Lisa was the Ayasofya.  We had a longer stay in Istanbul in 2015 and saw all the major sites and so were happy to see anything she wanted.  The rest of the day will be in the next post.

Not a lovely day in Istanbul.  Still, there were a lot of tourists out.

 Inside it was at least dry.  This building was originally a church built in 532-537.  It has been rebuilt and enlarged many times over the centuries.  Around 1453 when the Ottomans conquered Constantinople, sultan Mehmet II ordered that the church be converted into a mosque.

There was a huge scaffolding in place for repairs.  I really tried to avoid it.

Last time we were here I did not have the fish eye lens.  Since the Ayasofya is so large I thought the lens would show the magnitude of the place.

This is actually a section of the floor that is roped off.  It is really flat - but this photo does show all the colors in the pattern.

A deformed photo of Mike's hand.  This Euro cent landed on his head.  Whether it fell from the ceiling or someone threw it from the upper floor - who knows.

Back to the regular lens.

And now we are in the upper balcony where the women went to pray.  The way up is many layers of ramps made out of cobblestone.