Haya Sofia

It goes without saying that Haya Sofia is one of the most popular sights of
Istanbul, probably I would even say that it is one of the most well-known and
prominent mosques in the whole world. So, all if these easily explains the fact
why whenever you go there, the mosque will be crowds, moreover, sometimes
you would even have to wait in a looong-long line.
The day when we went to that sightseeing we also had to wait in the row, but
luckily, it was not that bad and didn’t take too much time. As we have read and
heard, Haya Sofia was initially built as a Christian cathedral, that’s why it looks
quite unusual, not as most of the regular mosques do. On one of the first
entrance doors still some catholic images and paintings have saved.

When you enter the mosque in the corridor there are large shelves for shoes,
which are also always full, due to the amount of people. Regarding the design
of the mosque, I would describe it as the pure Muslim gothics. The general
atmosphere is quite dark and heavy, but still, everything is very beautiful.
Massive chandeliers, traceries on the walls, colors all of these look very
interesting together.
To be honest, I didn’t feel that much of comfort and peace at that place, as I said
above, the atmosphere was some kind of heavy, but still, I would defenately
include this place to the “must see places” of Turkey.