How the Hagia Sophia Was Constructed, and How It is Being Saved from Collapse

Ask round for what each­one is aware of about Istan­bul (oth­er than that it was referred to as Con­stan­tino­ple), and also you’ll discover that the pres­ence of Hagia Sophia there comes proper to many a thoughts. Much less like­ly to be males­tioned is its inclined­ness to earth­quakes, although it tends to rank slightly below Tokyo on lists of cities underneath the good­est risk from fault strains beneath. These two char­ac­ter­is­tics prove to have a con­nec­tion, man­i­fest within the ongo­ing seis­mic retro­becoming of Istan­bul’s sym­bol­ic cathe­dral-turned-mosque-turned-muse­um turned-mosque-again. Hagia Sophia is likely one of the most cel­e­brat­ed reli­gious construct­ings stand­ing; preserve­ing it that manner requires a seri­ous engi­neer­ing effort, as defined in the brand new B1M video above.

Because it was first constructed within the fourth cen­tu­ry, Hagia Sophia has actu­al­ly sus­tained extreme earth­quake dam­age fairly a number of instances, includ­ing a com­plete col­lapse of its cupo­la within the yr 558 and par­tial col­laps­es within the tenth and 4­teenth cen­turies. The con­struc­tion of its well-known cen­tral dome, together with the small­er sub-domes that sup­port it, will get a sec­tion of its personal within the video.

Host Fred Mills additionally provides due males­tion to the eight inexperienced mar­ble columns that sup­port the higher flooring of the cathe­dral, thought to have been recy­cled from the ruins of the Tem­ple of Artemis (one of many Sev­en Gained­ders of the Historical World), and the crimson stone set into the ground on which emper­ors had been as soon as topped that will have been introduced in from the Egypt­ian desert.

In these and oth­er respects, Hagia Sophia isn’t only a website of pil­grim­age and wor­ship, but in addition a ver­i­ta­ble constructed report of cen­turies upon cen­turies of Roman, Greek, Chris­t­ian, and Islam­ic civ­i­liza­tion. As evi­denced by the scaf­fold­ing cur­lease­ly as much as facil­i­tate the venture of prepared­ing it for the inevitable com­ing of the large one — or somewhat, the large­ger one — the struc­ture con­tin­ues to vary with time, although our period has an espe­cial­ly robust con­cern for pre­serv­ing what have by now turn into his­tor­i­cal fea­tures. Therefore the efforts now being put into restora­tion: of the dome, nat­u­ral­ly, but in addition of the flooring, columns, and mosaics. If all goes properly, Hagia Sophia will con­tin­ue to face as essentially the most strik­ing struc­ture in Istan­bul’s already dra­mat­ic city and geo­graph­i­cal set­ting for anoth­er mil­len­ni­um and a half, incor­po­rat­ing his­to­ry all of the whereas.

Relat­ed con­tent:

An Intro­duc­tion to Hagia Sophia: After 85 Years as a Muse­um, It’s Set to Change into a Mosque Once more

How the Byzan­tine Empire Rose, Fell, and Cre­at­ed the Glo­ri­ous Hagia Sophia: A His­to­ry in Ten Ani­mat­ed Min­utes

A Cul­tur­al Tour of Istan­bul, The place the Artwork and His­to­ry of Three Nice Empires Come Togeth­er

360 Diploma Vir­tu­al Excursions of the Hagia Sophia

Hear the Hagia Sophia’s Awe-Inspir­ing Acoustics Get Recre­at­ed with Com­put­er Sim­u­la­tions, and Let Your­self Get Trans­port­ed Again to the Mid­dle Ages

Istan­bul Cap­tured in Beau­ti­ful Col­or Photos from 1890: The Hagia Sophia, Prime­ka­ki Palace’s Impe­r­i­al Gate & Extra

Based mostly in Seoul, Col­in Marshall writes and broad­casts on cities, lan­guage, and cul­ture. He’s the creator of the newslet­ter Books on Cities in addition to the books 한국 요약 금지 (No Sum­ma­riz­ing Korea) and Kore­an Newtro. Fol­low him on the social web­work for­mer­ly often called Twit­ter at @colinmarshall.