Stunning! I was lucky enough to visit Hagia Sophia on a Sunday!

In 532 AD, Justinian I built Hagia Sophia to show off the power of the Roman Empire. Later, with the looting of the Crusades and the invasion of Islam, the Eastern Roman Empire gradually declined. Hagia Sophia was forcibly opened for the last time in 1453, marking the end of the once glorious Eastern Roman Empire. The 1,500 years of history can be condensed into a few lines, but the ambition and desire packaged in the name of God, the struggle and struggle between power, are all the same as the individual and collective destiny. "Blood splattered on its marble floor" and "They led mules and horses into the church to better transport the holy vessels." On the second floor of the cathedral, you can still see the marks left by the Crusades. Hymns and prayers, screams and cries, ceremonies and prayers, all echoed in the dome of the cathedral, but the sound did not leave a trace, they dissipated with time. But on the wall of the second floor of the cathedral, history no longer uses text or memory as its carrier. The 1,500 years of time have been weathered and deposited, and finally exist in the form of rock formations. It is said that Justinian used some of the stone materials from Greek buildings when building the cathedral. Later, the Orthodox Church decorated the church with gold mosaics, and the broken three saints silently recorded this history. After the fall of the church in 1453, most of the gold mosaic decorations were covered with mortar, and the most exquisite dome Madonna and Child image of the Eastern Roman period was also covered with white cloth. The gold mosaic covers the Greek stone, and the Islamic yellow mural is on it. The 1,500 years of vicissitudes are condensed on the wall of the square, which is called "stacked history". This is a city with three names, from Byzantium to Constantinople to Istanbul. From the first time this land in the Bosphorus Bay appeared in the mist in the early morning, to the split between East and West Rome, and then to the Ottoman siege. Prosperity is burned into ashes, and ashes breed prosperity again.