Hagia Sophia hosts 6.5M visitors in 2nd year of reopening as mosque, according to Istanbul Deputy Mufti Ahmet Aktürkoğlu.
The iconic monument served as a church for 916 years until the conquest of Istanbul in 1453. It then served as a mosque from 1453 to 1934 – nearly 500 years – and most recently as a museum for 86 years.
One of the most visited historic buildings in Turkey by domestic and international tourists, Hagia Sophia was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1985.
On July 10, 2020, a Turkish court annulled a 1934 Cabinet decree that had turned Hagia Sophia into a museum, paving the way for its use again as a mosque after the 86-year hiatus.
The monument was restored to its former glory as the Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque on July 24, 2020, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan joining hundreds of worshipers for the first Muslim prayer in 86 years inside Hagia Sophia.
