Today for Thursday Doors we are again in Istanbul! My first photo is of a local restaurant that features seating with cushions around low tables or seating at tables and chairs, like we know it! The glass door slides open and covers the entire restaurant front! At night they just slide it shut! So, for the first photo I am standing in the doorway!

Hagia Sophia translated from Greek means “Holy Wisdom.”  I think “Holy Wisdom” has kept this beautiful building from being destroyed. Hagia Sophia is just one of several beautiful structures in Istanbul. It was a Greek Orthodox Christian church, then a mosque, and now a museum. The Roman Empire’s first Christian Cathedral, from the date of it’s construction in 537 AD until 1453, served as an Eastern Orthodox cathedra and seat of Constantinople, except between 1204 and 1261, when it was converted by the Crusaders to a Roman Catholic cathedral under the Latin Empire. The building was later converted into an Ottoman mosque from  May 29, 1453 until 1931. It was then opened as a museum on February 1, 1935.  Famous in particular for it’s massive dome, it is considered the epitome of byzantine architecture. It remained the world’s largest cathedral for nearly a thousand years, until Seville Cathedral was completed in 1520. The walls and ceilings have been left in both the Christian and Muslim traditions, where they were salvageable. It is truly one of those most remarkable sites! Some of my photos are from Hagia Sophia and some from the Blue Mosque. The architecture and color is undeniable in these sites.

Here, we see Mary and Jesus and words from the Koran all in the same space.

The filtered blue light casts a magical feel throughout!

The Blue Mosque, as it is popularly known, was constructed between 1609 and 1616 during the rule of Sultan Ahmed I. Hand-painted blue tiles adorn the mosque’s interior walls, and at night the mosque is bathed in blue lights that frame the mosque’s five main domes, six minarets and eight secondary domes. It is situated next to Hagia Sophia.

If you have ever wondered where the word turquoise comes from look no farther than Turkey! It is bathed in so many shades of BLUE!

Now we are in the Sultan’s garden which looks out over the water! Compare the size of the doors to the man walking!

And my final door in Istanbul is the opening in a tree! I hope you have enjoyed the doors of some of Istanbul’s famous sites!

This is just one of many photos in the Thursday Door Collection featured by Norm2.0!   Won’t you join in or take a peak at all the doors?