The Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque has attracted thousands of visitors since it was reopened as a place of worship after being reverted from a museum in 2020. But few people are aware that beneath the architectural wonder at the heart of Istanbul lies a network of tunnels, cellars and graves.
Professor Hasan Fırat Diker and his team, meanwhile, continue exploring “underground Hagia Sophia,” examining the intricate structures beneath the building that was reconstructed three times in its history dating back to Byzantine times. Diker is an academic from the Faculty of Architecture and Design at Fatih Sultan Mehmet Vakıf University (FSMVÜ), which was established by a foundation originally started by Mehmed II, the Ottoman sultan who conquered Istanbul and converted the Hagia Sophia into a mosque from a cathedral.
