Emperor Justinian had the Aya Sofya (known as Haghia Sofia in Greek and also called Church of the Divine Wisdom) built as part of his effort to restore the greatness of the Roman Empire in 537 and recognized as the greatest church in Christendom until 1453, Mehmet the Conqueror had it converted into a mosque until 1935, when Atatürk proclaimed it a museum. Usually, when the Ottomans conquered the city, they would destroy the church but because of its magnificent dome ceiling (approx. 10 meters) of Hagia Sophia, they converted into mosque by white plastering the mosaics of the Jesus Christ and built such as minarets and mihrab, which indicates the right direction of Mecca.
Inside the Haghia Sophia, the big wooden disks inscribed the name of the Prophet Muhammad.
In a high location on the half dome of the apse is the mosaic of the Virgin Mary holding the Child Jesus.
Islamic mihrab, indicated the direction of Mecca.
Before we exited, seeing the mosaic from the mirror, the mosaic of Virgin and Child sided by Justinian I and Constantine I.
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