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Blue Mosque The Egyptian column is part of the ancient hippodrome |
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Blue Mosque By night |
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Blue Mosque The dome is supported by enormous columns. |
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Blue Mosque The ceiling decorations actually seem more colorful in photos than they did in the dim light when we were there. |
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Blue Mosque It's amazing to see such an enormous house of worship without the pews we would see in a Christian church! |
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Hagia Sofia Completed in 537 AD, this was for almost 1000 years the largest Christian church in the world. |
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Hagia Sofia The mosaics were whitewashed over instead of destroyed when this became a mosque in 1453. |
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Hagia Sofia Atatürk declared the Aya Sofya a museum in 1935, and the mosaics were again revealed |
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Chora Church Originally built around 435 AD; the current decorations date from around 1320 |
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Chora Church The mosaics here are said to be the best Byzantine mosaics in existence, but I prefer those in Ravenna, which are over 700 years older and are better preserved. These do have better facial expressions, though. |
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Chora Church A dome showing the ancestors of Christ |
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Chora Church The church also contains many fine frescoes |