the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia

Warning. This post is gonna have a lot of pictures. We did not go inside both of these buildings on the same day but they just go together. Our first ferry ride was to an art workshop in the square between them.

the blue mosque


Haygia Sophia

Would be great if I had a photograph of my sketch from this day, but I don't so I will move on! I finished up my sketch and wandered around a bit in the square to take some photos.


reminds me of a picture at Disney World

Once we finished we headed into the Blue Mosque (Sultan Ahmed Mosque). This is their introductory poster. I was just glad it wasn't as crowded as in that picture (I think that is probably Mecca).

Loved the tile work. The amount of wires in the space supporting the light fixtures were a bit distracting however. I have some other observations about the space, especially in comparison to Haygia Sophia, but this is not really the right place to share those.

And now for a break from buildings:
A frequent street scene, roasted corn and chestnuts:

Another frequent scene, cats:

Lovely bowls (I brought home a few):

My lunch that day, a meat and cheese and veggie baked thing:

site of the Council of Chalcedon (back in Kadikoy)

Ok. Back to buildings. This is the Hagia Sophia (or Ayasofia). To sum up that wikipedia article, it was built as a Christian church in 537, converted to a mosque in 1453, and is currently a museum (since 1935).

going in

There is still a lot of work to do to uncover the mosaics that were plastered over while it was a mosque.That's when those big round plywood Arabic disks were added.