Another "next time"-mission for me is the Hagia Sofia-mosque (probably the third way I've spelled the name on my pages now... I'll keep it to that spelling in the future...). Four and a half day in Istanbul rans off fast, so I never got the chance to get inside the Hagia Sofia. From the outside it looks fantastic though, and for me it's even more powerfull than the Blue Mosque. It was built and done as early as 537, and was for many hundred years the biggest church in the world, plus also the biggest building with a roof in the world. Actually, if you're interested in history, the church was built even earlier, some 200 years. But when a huge war erased in Konstantinopel (which later on became Istanbul) the first, and much smaller, Hagia Sofia was left in ruin. The emperior Justinianus, who won the war, decided to build a new church, more mighty than anything else. It even became a bit too mighty. During the first couple of hundred years the roof went down three times... Well, you can't win them all - but nowadays the roof should be safe on it's place... When Mehmet the conquerer and his men rode into Konstantinopel in in 1453 the Hagia Sofia was saved from beinged destroyed by just Mehmet, but was at the same time changed into a mosque. Sultan Mehmet, who he later became, also tried to build something even mightier. The architect Atik Sinan got the order, but when he had finished the Fatith Mosque the sultan was annoyed with the result, and Sinan had to live the rest of his life without his head... Today isn't the building neither a mosque. Kemal Atatürk decided that it should only be a museum, which it still is today. Open 9.30-16.30 (until 19.00 in the summer). Closed on mondays. Entrancefee around 15 lira.