Next on the list was the Hagia Sophia. This was a huge highlight of the day for us!
When we arrived there were already small queues for the tickets so we were very pleased to be able to swan through with our fast pass. We had to have our bags scanned, which wasn't a big deal. Then we walked through a small garden with an odd collection of columns. But we were very soon in front of this ancient building - which from close up really didn't look that impressive. We are forced to give it a pass though - because it was built in 537 so is over one and a half thousand years old! And since it is still standing, one can only be awed and impressed! 
Seriously though, Hagia Sophia - named "Shrine of the Holy Wisdom of God" was built as a Eastern Orthodox Cathedral in 537 and remained the largest cathedral in the world for nearly one thousand years. The building was a mosque from 29 May 1453 until 1931. It was then secularized and opened as a museum on 1 February 1935.
I have NEVER been inside a complete building that ancient before. The experience was amazing. It was humbling to think of the tens of thousands of feet that had trod this threshold over the many centuries. In fact, the threshold was quite worn down by all those feet and had a very definite dip in it.
Inside was a long foyer with the most amazing ceilings! They were decorated with gold tesserae that served to reflect the light back down and lighten the whole gloomy area.
We then moved across another ancient (and worn) threshold and into the main church itself. This was breathtaking! The sheer size of the dome was unbelievable - and more so when you reflect that it was constructed in the 500's! 
It was right about this time that we discovered that neither of us had remembered to put the battery on the larger camera on to charge overnight so it was running down after all its use in Ephesus! DOH! This meant that we had to conserve its use and use the smaller (less quality) camera more. We also had two iPhones between us for back up but it was a bit of a disappointment that we couldn't use our best camera for capturing the full richness of these awesome incredible sites.
This is the Omphalion - place of the coronation of the Eastern Roman Emperors
Now, if you are ever planning on visiting there DO NOT under any circumstances wander round the ground floor of the Hagia Sophia, gawp at the sights, and then leave! The best is yet to come!!! The main floor was crowded and we could see people peeking over a balcony high above us so we set off to find a way up. This turned out to be a tunnel with a sloping ramp, old beyond the hills, that continually switched back on itself in a crazy and slightly claustrophobic way. The floor was insanely uneven and it felt like a grand adventure to be ascending it with no idea what awaited us at the top.
The tunnel ejected us into a huge mezzanine stretching over 3/4s of the way around the whole building. It was just breathtaking in its size and scope. I had had no idea this was here but I was so glad we hadn't missed it!
The two things that stood out the most for me were the incredible mosaics and decorations; and the way the great stone slabs on the floor had cracked and settled with age and were all crazy and uneven. That more than anything conveyed the sheer age of the building to me.
This new vantage point gave us an incredible view over the church.
The decorative elements were particularly interesting because when the cathedral became a mosque in the fifteenth century many of the Christian mosaics were plastered over because they depicted human figures - something not permitted in Muslim art. Now restorers are tasked with the delicate job of discovering and choosing which of these to restore. Obviously in doing so they have to destroy the art work that covered them over.
Whether the ancient mosaics or the somewhat less ancient but still quite old frescos, the art work was incredible and covered every spare inch of the building.
And of course we got to admire the iconic mosaics that had been uncovered and restored.
The age of the building was really strongly conveyed in how uneven everything was. Over time the building must have settled considerably with somewhat stomach churning results - its best not to think how high you are above the ground and how much unyielding stone surrounds you! Some of those floors were very definitely sloped!
Signs of age were also evident in the graffiti on the columns and the way they had been smoothed by a millennia and a half of hands - but only as far as people could reach.
The exit to this upper floor was by a different sloping tunnel - but this time we had all kinds of fascinating nooks and crannies off it - some of which had been used as tombs.
By the time we exited the queue to buy tickets was stretching for well over a hundred metres. And there was no queue for the Fast Pass kiosk!
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