An American Monster Geek in London: A Tale of Two Mosques

Probably the two main sites in Istanbul are Haggia Sofia and The Blue Mosque. They sit opposite each other in the heart of the Old Town.

No TV program can prepare you for Haggia Sofia, and we'd seen a lot of them in preparation for the trip.

You enter a corridor, and then emerge through these large doors into the main chamber. It is astoundingly beautiful for a building over 1500 years old.

We were visiting late afternoon, and the light coming through the western windows just made the gold paint glow.

It is amazing to think that this building began its life as a Church, but when subsequent civiliztions took over the area, rather than tearing down this church building, they were so taken with its grandeur that they converted it to their purposes, and made it into a mosque.

Today it is a museum, and many of the original Christian paintings and murals, which were painted over by the Muslims have been uncovered for people to see. It is amazing to see the blending of the Christian and the Muslim Art Styles, and how the basic vision of the original architect was adapted to serve both while still retaining his original concept.

No visit to Istanbul is complete without seeing this site.

Directly across the street is The Blue Mosque.

Though not as old as Haggia Sofia, it is also a magnificent mosque, and it is still in use for worship today.

You can tour parts of the mosque between services, and services are called by singing voices from the six minarets five times a day.

Nowadays, the voices are still live, but are projected from speakers in the minarets, but in the past, someone would have had to climb them and sing at the top of their voice.

The courtyard in front of the mosque is amazing and otherworldly. It certainly felt the most foreign and fanciful of any place I've visited in my travels. It almost looks like something out of a Science Fiction film.