Opening of Hagia Sophia as a Mosque:



Thousands gathered on July 24 for the official opening ceremony of the Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque in Istanbul. Recently, a decision was made by the Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan to turn the famous ‘Hagia Sophia’ into a  mosque.

 A byzantine cathedral for around 900 years, it was conquered by the Ottoman Empire and became a mosque until 1934.  After that, it was a museum for a very long time which became a beautiful tourist destination in the country's capital, Istanbul. However, Erdogan brought about the mandate to convert it into a mosque.

It held prayers for the first time in over 80 years on Friday, July 24, which the president attended himself.