An everyday life's Odyssey

Inside Hagia Sophia.
“Holy Wisdom”, in Istanbul old district, Turkey. One of the most
impressive buildings I saw in Istanbul. All the memories from history
courses of my teen years rushed back to my head when I entered the
church/mosque/museum. The Byzantine empire was an important topic of
the history courses in 7th grade (5eme in French system). I remember
my old books were full of the old byzantine mosaics, and featured a
blueprint of the building to show the characteristic “cross like”
architecture. I don’t remember they mentioned the entire building was
covered with paintings, neither the big wooden signs around the 4 main
pillars. The name of Allah and his prophet, the prophet’s children’s
and the first four Caliphs are written on each. What strokes me
most was this blending of Christian and Islamic iconography that I
didn’t necessarily suspect at first. The turks, when they took the
city, didn’t destroy the building or used it as a stone career. On the
contrary, they restored it, covered everything inside with stucco and
paintings. It’s weird that sometimes, you enter a particular place,
and all its history literally jumps to your face. Hagia Sophia is
definitely one of them.