The grandest of them all, the Haghia Sophia, a legacy of Emperor Justinian. "Who is Sophia?' The question was posed to us by 2 Swedish visitors we shared a room with at the hostel in Instanbul. Sophia means Wisdom in Greek and Haghia Sophia simply means Holy or Sacred wisdom. Its not consecrated to any saint by the name of Sophia.
These days it is one of the most visited sites in the world. The ticket lines are a mile long throughout the day. I went at 8.15 am to buy our tickets, waited till 9am when they opened and by 9am the line for tickets was already impossible.
The mosaics at the entrance, still as beautiful as the day they were put up, a few hundred years ago or maybe over 1000 years ago.
Remnants of when it was converted to a mosque still remain.
This was my second visit here and I still get excited about seeing it again.
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