The magnificent Hagia Sofia

Hagia (pronounced as Aya) Sofia stands six storey high from floor to dome. My jaw dropped at the site of this palatial space and architectural wonder. Its design is an engineering feat which the Ottomans tried to copy in their mosques but failed. How did the Romans support such a high structure without big fat columns?  The secret is in the way they laid the domes.

This building is A.N.C.I.E.N.T. , about 1,480 years old.  It was first built as a Roman church, then turned into a mosque by Mehmet the conqueror, then Ataturk turned it into a museum in 1930's. The building sits in the same vicinity as the Blue Mosque, the Topkapi Palace and the Byzantine Hippodrome. So one can easily spend a day in this part of Istanbul.

This image here was taken from the internet. My own camera couldn't capture the span of this structure.