Hagia Sophia
It was the largest cathedral in the world for nearly a thousand years, until the completion of
the Seville Cathedral in 1520. The current building was originally constructed as a church
between 532 and 537 A.D. on the orders of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian, and was in fact
the third Church of the Holy Wisdom to occupy the site. It was designed by two architects.
Church contained a large collection of holy relics and featured, among other things, a 50 foot
(15 m) silver iconostasis. It was the patriarchal church of the Patriarch of Constantinople and
the religious focal point of the Eastern Orthodox Church for nearly 1000 years.
In 1453 Sultan Mehmed II ordered the building to be converted into a mosque. The bells,
altar, iconostasis, and sacrificial vessels were removed, and many of the mosaics were
eventually plastered over. The Islamic features -- such as the mihrab, the minbar, and the
annaabi.ee 
