The Domes of Istanbul

Posted bykmeyerk18Posted inUncategorized

Istanbul has nearly 4,000 mosques with the country of Turkey having over 82,000. So domes are a dominant architectural feature for that reason alone.

We visited The Hagia Sophia, which means “holy wisdom,” was originally built as a cathedral in Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey) in the sixth century A.D. Over time it has been used as a mosque and and a museum. Currently it is used as mosque with hopes that it will be reverted to a museum.

The Hagia Sophia dome is about 108 feet in diameter and its crown rises around feet above the current ground level.
The dome is slightly oblong shaped as the stone and brick used for the building were taken from other structures and the cathedral was built in just 6 years!
The multiple domes that surround the main dome.

Other domed views from outside and inside.

2 thoughts on “The Domes of Istanbul”

  1. Amazing! Thinking about the construction of the enormous mosques, and the original cathedral is mind blowing! Have you gone down into the water system below ground in Istanbul that I think used to be baths, or cisterns or the source of running water long ago. That is pretty amazing too!

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    1. It’s the cistern and it’s huge. We didn’t get to go in because the entrance is being renovated. We were walking in the Topkapi Ottoman Palace (quite a long way from the entrance) and the top of the cistern is exposed. I will send a picture.

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