So here's what you need to know about Istanbul: go to the Hagia Sophia. It's like a dinosaur from some long ago era died there and you get to walk around in its shell. If dinosaurs had shells, that is. Which, as far as I know, might be true. Scientists have added feathers to dinosaurs since I was a kid, so shells are not entirely out of the question.
My wife suggested including a picture. Why, I don't know. Maybe she thinks you'll get it confused with South Dakota's Corn Palace. Anyway, here is a shot of it I definitely took myself and did not copy from some random place on the Internet.
Back to the Hagia Sophia, which I will refer to as "Sophia" from now on. If you want to know things like how old it is or see a ton of pictures of it, go look it up on the Internet. This is not a well-rounded, approachable article. Go do your own research if you care, and if you don't, I'm saving you from having to skip all that factual crap interlaced with what you really want to read: some other crap.
Anyway, Sophia, which I will refer to as "Soph" from now on because I feel like we are besties. It's ancient. It makes you feel like you're briefly passing through history while it watches. One of the many tells of its age is the marble floors, which are grooved and worn down in ways that require centuries of traffic.
Soph is also cavernous on the inside, which is a compliment because it's a building and not a woman. There is a chandelier hanging from the center of the dome, and if you stand under it then take a few steps back, the perspective messes with you. The ceiling is so far away that it appears stationary even while the chandelier moves in your eyes. The wire connecting the two moves in a very spatially confusing and unexpected manner.
Basically everywhere you look, there is impressive stonework. There are lots of varieties of stone, and some of the most striking are the ones cut in half and presented mirrored left-to-right. There are also scads and scads of tiles (metric, not English, scads).
It really makes you wonder how they built Soph, or "Soph Doggy Dogg". It's very impressive that _______ were technologically capable of building it way back in ___ (seriously, you're already on the Internet, go look it up).
There is not a lot left of the original artwork because the ownership of S Dogg has changed hands multiple times. Each time it was probably subject to some ancient equivalent of Property Brothers, which is too bad because Property Brothers. Some of the original mosaics are still intact, though, and are quite impressive.
And there you have it: something about the Hagia Sophia. I highly suggest going to see it even if you're still hung up on my mixed metaphors about dinosaur shells.
...because Property Brothers. Hehe
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