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Byzantium's Greatest Building Here it is: the Church of the Holy Wisdom built by Justinian the Great. The scaffolding now intruding in the interior has been here for years, and will be here for years to come as the wondrous mosaics in the awesome dome are restored to their original splendor. If you travel to Turkey and come to Istanbul to see this Byzantine architectural marvel, and see it only once in your life, the scaffolding may seem an unwelcome barrier to your visual enjoyment of the building's vast space. Look at it from another point of view: over 120 generations of men and women have seen the interior, but very few have seen it this way. Aya Sofya has stood here for almost a millennium and a half (since 537). It's not surprising that it requires a bit of work now and then. |
