Hagia Sophia is one of the greatest surviving Byzantine architecture in Istanbul, Turkey. From its construction in 537 to 1453, it was an Eastern Orthodox cathedral under the Byzantine Empire, except from 1204 to 1261, it was converted to a Roman Catholic cathedral under the Latin Empire. From 1453 to 1931, the building was converted to a mosque under the Ottoman Empire. In 1935, the first Turkish President and founder of the Republic of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, transformed the Haghia Sophia into a museum. Hagia Sophia was once the largest cathedral for 1,000 years until the completion of the cathedral in Seville in Spain.
The spectacular interior has a complex structure, with a central dome surrounded with extended half domes of identical diameter. The interior of Hagia Sophia is richly decorated with both Christian and Islamic elements, notably the mosaics and marble pillars with great artistic value. The mosaics either depicted the Jesus, St. Mary, saints, or emperors and empresses. While one the of most prominent Islamic element are the gigantic circular-framed disks with Islamic Calligraphy hung on columns which were added in 1800s. Hagia Sophia's long history as both a church and a mosque render it as one of the most unique architecture in the world.
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