The laser is firing out over a million times a second now. Our scan team is using laser technology to reveal the genius of Justinian's engineers.īy recording each location as data, we can analyze how it was built and changed over time, and this place has survived 1,500 years of earthquakes, riots, and wars. ♪♪ Its size and open spaces make it an astonishing piece of engineering for the time - and even today. Thanks to his conversion to Christianity, it soon became the official religion of the entire empire.īut it was this emperor, Justinian I, who built this cathedral in the 6th century. He moved the imperial capital here from Rome in 324 when the empire was in turmoil. This 10th century gold mosaic shows the two Roman emperors responsible for the existence of the Hagia Sophia. ♪♪ ♪♪ Your eyes are drawn up to the beauty and the size of the great dome.Ĭan you imagine to be a person living in 6th century Constantinople, how overwhelming that experience would've been, how its massive size dominated the entire city? In its day, it was the largest religious building in the Christian world. ![]() It was then converted into a mosque in the 15th century.Ĭalled "Ayasofya" in Turkish and "Hagia Sophia" in Greek, it means the Church of the Holy Wisdom of God. ♪♪ It began life as a Christian cathedral built by the Romans. It embodies the history of the entire city. The Hagia Sophia is Istanbul's most iconic building. This place has been built by Romans, rocked by earthquakes, sacked by Crusaders, and besieged by Ottomans, and you can see evidence of all of that all over the city, but there's also an invisible world hidden under the surface of modern Istanbul, and that's where the key to understanding this ancient city can be found.Įven the most famous places have their surprises. I love how the city's tempestuous past has created one of the most vibrant cities on Earth. Perhaps Napoleon said it best - "If the world were a single state, then Constantinople would be its capital." Many considered it the center of the world. Then it was renamed Constantinople, capital of the Roman Empire. Now, over 2,500 years ago, this was a Greek town, Byzantium. ![]() It runs north to the Black Sea, down south to the Mediterranean. ♪♪ -Istanbul, Turkey - the meeting place of East and West.Īnd I'm arriving on the mighty waterway that put this city on the map. This is Istanbul as even the locals may never have seen it. to get to the heart of the city's hidden wonders. diving through layers of history to show how the city has had to reinvent itself over and over.Īs a professor of Roman history, I'm floored by the Hagia Sophia Cathedral. Using the latest 3-D imaging technology, our scanning team will help us see the city as no human eye ever could. I'm Darius Arya, and I'm off to explore three of the most amazing cities on the planet - Cairo, the gateway to Egypt's ancient wonders Athens, the cradle of democracy and, in this program, Istanbul, a boisterous treasure trove of architectural genius.įor over 2,000 years, East has met West here in Istanbul, the strategic middle ground fought over and contested by some of the world's mightiest empires.īut many of its secret treasures are hidden.
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