Hagia Sophia
2020 JUL 4
Preliminary >
Geography > Places in news > Places in news
IN NEWS:
- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has proposed restoring the mosque status of the Hagia Sophia.
ABOUT HAGIA SOPHIA:
- Hagia Sophia is the former Greek Orthodox Christian patriarchal cathedral, later an Ottoman imperial mosque and now a museum.
- It is located in Istanbul, Turkey and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
- It is famous for its large dome.
- Built in AD 537, during the reign of Eastern Roman (Byzantine empire) emperor Justinian, it was the world's largest building and an engineering marvel of its time.
- It is considered the epitome of Byzantine architecture and is said to have "changed the history of architecture".
- Built as the great Cathedral of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire, it was converted into a mosque after the Ottoman conquest of Istanbul in 1453.
- It was secularized and opened as a museum on 1 February 1935 after Mustafa Kemal Atatürk overthrew the ottoman empire and founded the Republic of Turkey.
PRELIMS QUESTION:
Q. Hagia Sophia is a world heritage site located in:
- Italy
- Spain
- Turkey
- Iran
Answer C
">Answer to Prelims question
