Again, we woke up early to be the first wave of visitors to get into the Hagia Sophia. The 25 Turkish Lira/pp admission was a bit much, but this is one of the main destinations in Istanbul. You can pay extra for guided tours or rent a headset for a self-guided tour, which probably would've provided a lot more information than just going in, walking around, and taking a few pictures - which is what we did.
This structure is very unique in that it's been around since the beginning of Byzantine times, but became a mosque, then a museum. it is considered to be one of the grandest representations of Byzantine architecture when this Eastern Orthodox Cathedral was rebuilt for the 3rd time (after fires) in the year 537 with materials brought from all over the Byzantine Empire. Hagia Sophia was the seat of Eastern Orthodoxy, and became the largest cathedral in the world for a thousand years until the Seville Cathedral was built in Spain in 1520. In 1453 when the Ottomans conquered the Byzantines, they converted the cathedral into the Aya Sofya Mosque, and became the first imperial mosque of Istanbul. The minarets and other renovations were later added.
When Turkey became a republic in 1935, President Ataturk declared it to be a museum.
We could tell this was a humongous church at one time. The interior is massive and domed, similar to the Blue Mosque, but we quickly recognized the sedate, muted, stone architecture and knew immediately that, without all the blue turquoise tiles, this was not Ottoman in origin. The Byzantines didn't have tile craftsmanship, but they procured marble and stone from all over the empire with natural designs and colors that were beautiful. The first 2 cathedrals burned down completely, except for a few artifacts remaining that were on display outside.
We then walked to the Grand Bazaar of Instanbul - one of the world's oldest and largest covered markets! Wow! It was definitely a maze of aisles and walkways. Many of the merchants were grouped into product line. An area selling gold jewelry, silver jewelry, carpets, ceramics, leather, etc. All the colors and frenzied activity was a sight to see. However, most everything sold there were souvenirs for tourists. At one point in time, this was probably THE place for locals to buy everything they needed for their household and survival, but we hardly saw any practical reason for a local person to enter this chaotic environment today. It would've been a treat to be able to see the bazaar in action the way it was before, or we would've wandered more if we were actually buying souvenirs! There were some very nice looking lamps, ceramics, Turkish towels, etc. that we would've loved to take with us if we could.
