Day 1: Minarets and Medusa

By Priyal S.

​Merhaba! As we wrap up our first full day in Istanbul, we find ourselves faced with the sad reality that today starts the clock on what will be a limited time spent in this amazing country (and city). Even though I, for one, kept thinking about how there was so much to do in so little time, I was quickly dragged right back to the present as the hustle and bustle of the early morning in Istanbul kept me on my toes. 

We started the day off fresh and early with a Turkish breakfast, quickly transitioning to stroll around the city with huge white (or red!) minarets as our end goal. The beautiful, and in some sense formidable, Hagia Sofia toward over us, a metal shield of scaffolding shielding us from its full grandeur. 

Stepping inside the main antechamber, your breath was simply snatched from your chest, the beautiful yellowing patterns on the arches made it feel like you were entering a room of opulence. But not without a purpose. As we would quickly come to realize, the overarching theme of the day would be sacredness. 

The Ayasofya has been protecting sacredness, for not even centuries, but for millennia. First erected in 360, no stone was unturned in creating an iconic structure that would lead the people of Constantinople on the path of Christ. Which would be true…before the Ottomans overturned the city and was converted to a mosque, in fact the principal mosque of what is now present day Istanbul. Eventually, after the establishment of the Republic of Türkiye, the iconic mosque was dedicated and turned into a museum to protect the rich history of this influential part of Asia Minor. 

Visiting the Hagia Sofia truly made me realize the power of faith in humanity: it drives us to great lengths, to the farthest corners of the Earth and motivates us to be our best selves and create the best things we can imagine. What the Hagia Sofia teaches us is how that faith can also be twisted and muddled, as faith is not just acquired but also taught. The generations of both Christians and Muslims that have been settled in this area represent a true confluence of culture, and also represents (more negatively) the constant push and pull of the self serving nature of humans over the nature of collaboration. The Ayasofya was turned into a mosque for the first time to cement the Ottoman conquest of the great city of Constantinople, the seat of one of the most fruitful empires in Asia Minor at the time, and this is what we as historians critically think about. 

The Ayasofya wasn’t the only place of cultural confluence, from the little Ayasofya, showing the influence of the Eastern Roman architecture in traditional islamic structures just proves that. If you look closely at some of the pillars in this intimate (yet beautiful) mosque, letters in Greek start to become glaringly clear. In the Underground Cistern, a huge ancient Roman contraption that was created as a reservoir for the city in times of siege also showed this. In the corner, certain pillars are standing on the bases of heads of Medusa! The obelisks and brass statue remains standing in the hippodrome square, the home of the ancient arena, are of Egyptian and Greek descent. All the way in Turkey, the influence of multiple different ancient cultures coincide and flow together to create a beautiful array of information to pick from and learn from, letting the past of this great city inform its future, and our own as well. This confluence of influence and culture creates an environment where many gems of civilization are found and saved for our own learning as to how things were millennia ago, in the times of our ancestors. 

Here’s to the next adventure, and sending lovely vibes from Istanbul, Priyal and the crew!!