Day 2--The whole group is here now!

The teachers all got out their cameras everyday.  First we had to get up at the same time for breakfast and then took our first bus ride downtown.  It was very hot and sunny and we drove to the oldest part of the city.

Hagia Sofia (Holy Sofia) is now a museum but it was a mosque for many years.  The towers are the minarets for the muezzin to send the call for prayer to Islamic believers.  But the mosque began as a Christian church built by the Emperor Justinian in 360 AD.  It did not become a mosque until 1453 AD.  The 2 pictures below show the original brick work from its life as a Christian church.

Orhan Sezener was our knowledgeable guide throughout our journey in Turkey.

The building has beautiful marble panels, pillars and marble floors.

The name of God--Allah--in Arabic.

The domes were the first of their kind and changed architecture forever.  I was just amazed at the vast space! I saw many beautiful mosques on the trip, but the Hagia Sofia was my favorite.

This is a selection of handwoven carpets in the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Art.

This is a wood mozaic section of a wall in the museum.

Calligraphy is a fine art throughout the world.  The Ottomans highly prized this beautiful--and precise--art.  This is a rendering--in gold leaf--of the Imperial emblem.

We sailed across the Bosphorus from Europe to Asia!