Hi All!

Last night, I arrived in Istanbul and today I got off to an early start seeing the city! That was partly because of my great and terrible planning. What was both great and terrible about my planning is that I have a hotel which is less than 100 yards from Hagia Sofia and the Blue Mosque, two of the most important sights in old Istanbul / Constantinople. The terrible thing is that both of these sights have multiple minarets (the towers used for calling Muslims to prayer 5 times a day.) In the old days, the Imam would climb the minaret and yell at the top of his lungs. Today, they have VERY loud speakers meant to be heard miles away. Apparently, the first time you should pray is at 6 am! On the upside, I was up good and early and managed to be 5th in line to buy a ticket to see Hagia Sofia!

Istanbul, while not mentioned in the New Testament, is extremely important in church history. The city was founded by Greek colonists in the 5th century BC, and named Byzantium. About 313 AD, the Roman Emporer Constantine (the first Christian emporer), moved the capital of the entire Roman Empire from Rome to Byzantium, which he then very modestly renamed Constantinople in honor of himself! When the Roman Empire split in two by the 6th century, Constantinople was the capital of the eastern, or Byzantine Empire.

The Church of Hagia Sofia (Holy Wisdom), was the Patriarchal Church of Orthodox Christianity, and even though the church is now a museum, the Patriarch of Constantinople is still looked to by over 300 million Eastern Orthodox Christians as the leader of eastern orthodox Christianity. It was in Constantinople that the Second Ecumenical Council was held in 381 AD. That Council, among other things, finalized the version of the Nicene Creed as we have it today. When Hagia Sofia was built (532-537 AD), it was the largest church in the world, and continued to hold that status until the Rennaisance. Even so, you can still fit Paris' Notre Dame Cathedral under the main dome of Hagia Sofia!

Constantinople was the captial of both the Byzantine Empire and the Eastern Orthodox Church until the emergent Ottoman Empire conquered Constantinople in 1453. While Christians continued to the live in the city afterwards, Hagia Sofia was turned into a mosque (the minarets were added at that time.) It continued to serve as a mosque until after the establishment of the Republic of Turkey. In 1935, Hagia Sofia became a national museum, and since then, the government of Turkey has tried to restore both the Christian and Muslim hertiage of the building. You can see a lot more in the pictures, and of course, I'll have a lot more to tell you about when I get back.

Tomorrow, I'm off on a cruise up the Bosphorus Strait!