The Hagia Sophia was located about five minutes away from our hotel. It stood prominently in the hippodrome close to the Blue Mosque. The hippodrome was once a chariot racing stadium with three large structures in the middle that would serve as distance markers that the horses would race around. The first structure was an egyptian obelisk, then a iron statue of three serpent heads weaving around each other, and lastly was another older obelisk which previously had elaborate gold decorations.
Directly within the gates of the Hagia Sophia looked like what seemed to be a royal cemetery or a burial place for the previous priests. I originally thought that it may have been a cemetery for the ancient temple that the Hagia Sophia was built on top of. However, what I assumed were tombs had christian crosses on it. The ruins of the ancient temple still remain outside of the Hagia Sophia and the architect actually used some of the stones from the temple. My classmates and I discussed the interesting phenomena about sacred locations around the world that many different religions share. If all of the various faiths and practices are so different, then how is that we find the same spot of land so sacred. The greek worship of the gods of Mount Olympus is very different from the Christian beliefs, but still the byzantine empire built their church on the very spot of an ancient pagan temple.
The first image that you see when entering the Hagia Sophia is an intricate, beautiful mosaic of Jesus holding the holy trinity sign with a small picture of the virginMary and the angel Gabriel on each side of him. Jesus is sitting on a lavish throne and if I remember correctly there is a man at his feet begging for forgiveness (or it could of been Constantine?). The tiny mosaic pieces are maybe about 1inch by 1inch and are brilliant, vibrant colors especially the gold that makes up the majority of the mural sparkles.
These murals were so important to the early century churches because many citizens could not read and even if they could, the Bible was in latin which was not their native language. The murals helped visually aid the church followers during the priests sermons that teach the stories and values of the bible. I believe that the mural of Jesus depicts the mercifulness and forgiving nature of Jesus because the Virgin Mary and the Angel Gabriel are at his sides and are known to be virtuous and bestow blessings on humans. Also, the halo above Jesus' head and the throne he is sitting on display his holiness and kingliness.
Imagine all these types of murals covering all the walls of the church. How awesome would that be? Unfortunately, when the Ottoman Empire came they covered them up with plaster in order to turn it into a mosque. Luckily, some of the mosaics were preserved underneath the plaster Some of the other mosaics that were uncovered depicted jesus either as an adult or as a baby in Virgin Mary's arms. One mural showed Constantine offering a model of the church to Jesus. This demonstrates how the church was not only to serve functionally for worship, but it's beauty was to please God.
The Hagia Sophia was later converted to a mosque during the Ottoman Empire. Today it exists as a museum and displays both the former christian church and the later muslim mosque. It was interesting to compare and contrast the two different religions because it was so apparent within the walls of the sophia. Where the mosaics were able to be uncovered, you could see the symbolism in Christianity and the worship of Jesus Christ. Whereas the Islam faith prohibits symbolism and does not worship the holy trinity. Muslims believe that Jesus was the only sinless man and a prophet to the people. The elaborate mosaics were covered with plaster and painted with symmetrical shapes and flowers. There are also five large circular black plaques that have gold arabic writing that beautifully says Allah, Muhammed, and three others that I don't remember exactly. The Muslims fear symbolism because they don't want people worshiping anyone but Allah. So they create artwork from the arabic calligraphy instead. Anything written is not considered symbolism. Instead of drawing or painting pictures of Muhammed, Muslims write descriptions about him in arabic. The Hagia Sophia is a literally demonstrated of the different values and beliefs the Christians and the Muslims have.
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