Hagia Sophia: After 86 years, Islamic prayers to start on July 24.

Hagia Sophia

The top court in Turkey ruled in favor of turning Hagia Sophia into a Mosque.  The epitome of the Byzantine architecture, the Hagia Sophia was built in 537 A.D, on the order of the Roman Emperor Justinian I. It was built as the third Church, the last one was destroyed by the rioters. It was the world’s largest cathedral for almost a thousand years until 1453 when the Sultan Mehmet II has conquered Constantinople and converted it into the Mosque. According to historians, he offered his first prayer in Constantinople…