Indoor Heavens
The dome of Istanbul‘s Hagia Sophia (Aya Sofya) has always been its most amazing feature: daringly broad (for the 6th century, when it was built).
I’ve always found it amazing that the windows around the base of the dome are an important reason for its strength. I would have thought just the opposite.
But age does ravage even the strongest buildings, which is why the scaffolding was put up to repair the mosaics you see gleaming in the dome. In 2012, after 17 years, the scaffolding was removed to reveal the dome without intrusion:
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