Hagia Sofia

Hagia Sofia began its career as a Byzantine church, then expanded to become a basilica. Old-y McOlderson. When the Turks captured Constantinople from the Christians in 1473, the sultan at the time, Mehmet, knew what a gem he had just taken over in Hagia Sofia.

It is a big deal like the pyramids in terms of the knowledge needed to construct it given the engineering knowledge at that time.

When the Turks took over the city of Istanbul, and Hagia Sofia, sultan Mehmet converted it to a Muslim mosque. That is when the mosaics of the church were plastered over....Islamic art does not permit iconography. No human representation or animals. The going idea being that only Allah can form things in perfection and it is presumptive for an artist to imitative Allah.

Which turns out to actually be good when these ancient mosaics are discovered and restored when the mosque (Hagia Sofia) is converted to a museum in the 1930s.

Lastly, the medallions on the walls are from its career as a mosque. They are the names of important figures of Islam. They are printed on camel leather and are HUGE!