Malaysiakini logo
This article is 4 years old

Factbox: Hagia Sophia's changing status over centuries of history

Friday prayers were held at Istanbul's Hagia Sophia for the first time since President Tayyip Erdogan declared the building a mosque once again.

It served as a Christian Byzantine cathedral for 900 years before Ottoman conquerors seized it.

Muslims prayed there until 1934 when it was turned into a museum... 

Verifying user