The Hagia Sophia dominates the horizon with its massive, shallow central dome, anchored by four slender minarets. Completed in five hundred thirty-seven under Emperor Justinian, it functioned as an Eastern Orthodox cathedral for nine centuries. When Mehmed the Conqueror seized Constantinople in fourteen fifty-three, he ordered the immediate conversion of the building into a mosque. Workers plastered over the golden Christian mosaics, installed massive wooden roundels inscribed with Arabic calligraphy, and added the prayer niche facing Mecca.
Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque
religious
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