Fifteen centuries after its building, the magnificent Byzantine church of Hagia Sophia nonetheless hides secrets and techniques, and their revelation nonetheless arouses surprise and admiration, stories Yannis Mandalidis on 30 August 2022 for CNN Greece.
It was based in AD 532, beneath Emperor Justinian I, when the prevailing temple on this website, additionally known as the Nice Church, was burned down throughout the revolts in Constantinople.
Hagia Sophia was inaugurated in 537, consecrated for the primary time in 360 and functioned because the cathedral of the Patriarchate of Constantinople till 1453.
The church devoted to the Holy Knowledge of God belongs to the peaks of Byzantine church building with progressive design and structure for its time.
The temple was and stays a logo of Constantinople each throughout the Byzantine and Ottoman intervals and right this moment.
Other than the admiration that the constructing evokes in guests and pilgrims, it’s equally fascinating what exists beneath its foundations, with varied legends and conjectures circulating all through the centuries to today.
Each from the tales and from the archaeological excavations carried out, it’s recognized that there was an enormous underground house beneath the ground of Hagia Sophia, which housed quite a few crypts, catacombs and galleries. An city legend even says that the Hagia Sophia’s underground tunnels attain Leander’s Tower (Mom’s Tower) on the Bosphorus and the Prince’s Islands.
Archaeologists say with certainty that the assorted tunnels beneath the church are linked to one another, though because of the accumulation of earth sediment right this moment most of them are blocked.
Professor Hassan Firat Dicker says that a big a part of the underground buildings of Hagia Sophia have been used as a storage space, and there are additionally buildings that have been a part of the sewage or water provide system.
At a depth of 4 meters, a catacomb was additionally found, consisting of three rooms, the place burials have been carried out from the 4th century AD. It’s the oldest construction within the Byzantine temple advanced. Its existence has been recognized since 1946, however solely not too long ago was work accomplished to take away the 4 tons of mud and sediment that had engulfed the positioning.
Supply: CNN Greece
Photograph: Isa Terli/Anadolu Company through Getty Photographs
