Hagia Sophia,Blue Mosque and Chora Musuem

This post is dedicated to my late father, Eddy Mensah, who exposed his children to so many historic places, despite the fact that we, at the time, did not have any appreciation for it. Today I treasure the gift of travelling and visiting places so much that I want to say to our beautiful children and to my family and friends..'Take time to travel and visit historic places. It is enriching in so many ways, and just as education, nobody can take it away from you”.

There are three highlights in this post:Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque and the Chora Museum. Hagia Sophia is also known as Aya Sophia or Holy Wisdom. I never thought that I will see a temple which was later used as a Mosque. More importantly, the mosaics and ceiling ornamentation which reflected Christianity was not removed when it was used as a Mosque. An example of ”Let’s agree to disagree and let’s respect each other’s position”


It was amazing to see Mother Mary and the child Jesus sitting in the middle with the symbols representing Arch Angel Gabriel and Prophet Mohamed on the left and right side ,on top of the Imperial gate. The Hagia Sophia served for 916 years as a church and 481 years as a mosque and since 1935 it has a historical function of a museum.
When visiting Hagia Sophia, I was in awe !I cannot explain to you the different emotions I experienced when I realized that I stood in a place whose construction started with the reign of Constantinius I and completed during the reign of Constantinius II.I always wondered why I had to learn about these people in history
Hagia Sophia with its glory and magnificence has survived until the present time and I was privileged to see one of the greatest examples of early Byzantine architecture.
The Blue Mosque is a masterpiece of architecture .
It is the culmination of two centuries of both the Ottoman Mosque and the Byzantine church development. It has its name from the blue tiles adorning its interior.
The day before I left Turkey I took a public bus to visit the Kharye (Chora)Museum o the outskirts of Istanbul. Altough much smaller in comparison with the Hagia Sophia and the Blue mosque, its mosaics and frescos are unique!

Not much is known about the history of this church but it is told that it was a monastery at the outskirts of the city before the city wall was built in the 5th century. Istanbul was built on seven hills and this museum is built on one of them. I am not surprised because everywhere you walk in Istanbul you realize that you are walking over hills.


I have never seen such mosaics...you cannot describe it...the most beautiful one is where Jesus is in the middle with his ancestors depicted in the inside of the Dome.Breathtaking and it looks like it was painted the other day.



A visit to these places reminds you how small you are and yet how special you are to be able to live to see buildings dating back to the 5th century!!