??hagia sophia ??: Did you mean...?

More info about travel to Istanbul: http://www.ricksteves.com/europe/turkey/istanbul Hagia Sophia has served over the centuries as one of the greatest houses of worship in both the Christian and Muslim worlds. Hagia Sophia marks the high...

Four medals showing beautifully designed names of the first four Rashidun Caliphs Abu Bakr (r. 632 - 634 CE), Umar (634 - 644 CE), Uthman (644 - 656 CE) and Ali (656 - 661 CE). In the Dome of the New Mosque, in the Hagia Sophia, Istanbul...

Interior fresco in the Hagia Sophia Church in Trebizond (present-day Trabzon, Turkey). 13th century CE.

Built in the seventh century BCE, the ancient city of Byzantium proved to be a valuable city for both the Greeks and Romans. Because it lay on the European side of the Strait of Bosporus, the Emperor Constantine understood its strategic importance...

How has this unique structure, built on a seismic fault, survived centuries of quakes?

The Byzantine Empire existed from 330 to 1453. It is often called the Eastern Roman Empire or simply Byzantium. The Byzantine capital was founded at Constantinople by Constantine I (r. 306-337). The Byzantine Empire varied in size over the...

The cascading geothermal pink and white terraces of Aotearoa New Zealand were often referred to internationally and within New Zealand as the eighth wonder of the world. They were a famous tourist attraction in the 19th century until the...

The architecture of the Byzantine Empire (4th - 15th century CE) continued its early Roman traditions but architects also added new structures to their already formidable repertoire, notably improved fortification walls and domed churches...

Byzantine art (4th - 15th century CE) is generally characterised by a move away from the naturalism of the Classical tradition towards the more abstract and universal, there is a definite preference for two-dimensional representations, and...

Theodora reigned as empress of the Byzantine Empire alongside her husband, Emperor Justinian I, from 527 CE until her death in 548 CE. Rising from a humble background and overcoming the prejudices of her somewhat disreputable early career...