Istanbul, St. Sophia Museum

The St. Sophia Mosque was originally a Byzantine Christian church, but in 1453 the mosaic murals of saints and angels were covered with colored plaster, and it became a mosque. In 1935 (500 years later), the plaster was carefully removed when the Turkish government declared it a museum. The dome of St. Sophia is huge, and high, and old, and so large that building engineers say it can’t be built, and will not stay in one piece if it were. Another one of the “bumblebee” buildings that has existed ‘lo these many centuries. The green marble columns inside are said to have been moved here from Ephesus.

St. Sophia and the Blue Mosque are next to each other, and the buildings and the grounds around them must cover a square mile. It’s difficult to describe the size of the buildings or their grounds, so “enormous” must suffice.