New Surprising Facts About Aya Sofia

British and some other researchers have managed to uncover the long-hidden facts about one of the world’s most important buildings. More than a decade of continuous research has uncovered the original design and underground remains of the Hagia Sophia, the largest historical building in Europe and the largest historical building in the world for almost a thousand years.

Researchers have uncovered for the first time the remains of the original sixth-century church, a long-lost tunnel more than a kilometer long and a series of underground cellars beneath the sprawling building. The new discoveries are of particular importance because Hagia Sophia is one of the most important political, religious and architectural buildings in the world.

The main purpose of its construction was to give practical expression to the political philosophy that still prevails in many regions of the world today, namely the fusion of ideological and political power, the unification of church and state. Hagia Sophia was a powerful symbol of this political ideology and a reflection of the style of government of its builder, the late Roman (early Byzantine) emperor Justinian.

One of the greatest Roman emperors, Justinian, built the Sophia and established his centralized political system just two generations after the collapse of the Roman Empire in Western Europe, leaving only southeastern Europe and parts of the Middle East under imperial rule. Government remained. As a result, Justinian’s new powerful system of government went on to have some effects on Eastern European history that were not seen in Western Europe, where church and state functioned separately, so that politics was liberal rather than central. Continued on the journey of progress.

New revelations about Hagia Sophia make it clear that Justinian’s great church was part of a sprawling complex of buildings in Constantinople (present-day Istanbul), the capital of the Byzantine Empire, also known as the Second Rome. Before this research, apart from the church, only two large buildings were found at this location.

However, British and Czech archaeologists have uncovered at least five grand buildings here, including Hagia Sophia.

Among the newly discovered buildings are the following: the magnificent palace built by Justinian for the Patriarchate of Constantinople, the most important governmental representative of the churches spread across his empire. The grand baptistery, richly furnished, was where the children of the rulers (often the future king) who succeeded Justinian were baptized. The religious advisory council where the most important religious and other matters of Christianity were decided (including the very important historic decision to raise the religious status of Mary). A large library for priests was also established in the same building.

Archaeologists have also discovered nine sixth-century paintings and two mosaics on the church’s unexplored entrance. Co-leader of the research project and Professor Kin Dark of the University of Reading said: “Long and detailed research has provided, for the first time in more than five centuries, solid evidence of how Sofia was the most important and vast center of the Byzantine Empire. Was a part of a chain of vast religious buildings.’ Professor Darke, co-author of the background to Hagia Sophia, a seminal book on the building, said: ‘The great church built by Justinian was in fact the material form of the religious and political ideals of his empire.’

This archaeological research also revealed for the first time how a secular imperial system actually evolved into the spiritual rituals of the Sophia. While wandering around a part of the church, archaeologists suddenly came across a 59 cm diameter purple marble circle where Emperor Justinian and his successors used to stand during important moments of religious rituals.

It is now believed that there was a series of royal purple circles (all made of purple marble imported from imperial Egypt) at key points throughout the church. There seems to have been a regular path on which successive kings walked and priests performed religious rites, repeating the last steps of Jesus in royal form.

For the first time, these investigations also revealed that Justinian had placed a gleaming white marble on the outside of his magnificent church to double its brilliance in the sun’s rays. In Roman and Greek tradition, white is a symbol of purity. New research reveals whether Hagia Sophia was indeed built in such a way that the entire empire was illuminated by its light. As Justinian established his new political system by uniting church and state, he seems to have decided to install the Roman/Byzantine imperial identity in the form of the church at the center of the empire in a way unprecedented in European political history. You meet

Analytical studies of new finds, especially carvings, are ongoing, just as the recently discovered writings of some minor church worker, written more or less one and a half thousand years ago, are ongoing.

British and Czech archaeologists, as well as Turkish researchers, are trying to figure out how the Romans built a network of tunnels and underground cellars.

This long-unknown subterranean channel is now filled with water and will require the services of experts familiar with the art of swimming to be investigated.

Was the building of Sophia a dangerous undertaking? Experts are researching the inscriptions on the wall that were made during the construction of the dome and other complex constructions. The inscription reads: ‘God, help your servant.’ This reflects the fear felt by workers in the 6th century (KR Dark and J. Kostenec).

Although most of them are yet to be discovered, it is estimated that Aya Sofia has over a thousand meters of tunnels and hidden rooms. According to archaeologists, some of them were used as cisterns for storing water, and others may have been used for small underground shrines and burials.

Water would have been vital to the daily needs of Justinian’s vast edifice, especially the irrigation of its landscaped gardens and the maintenance of its magnificent fountains.

Justinian’s Aya Sophia Church emerged as a result of a major political crisis in which the emperor was about to be overthrown. Its construction was symbolic of its determination to reconfigure its power. In Roman Constantinople, the rivalry between supporters of the two main teams of charioteers was fierce and often violent, compared to the rivalry between supporters of different football teams today. Moreover, supporters of the two Rathban teams had different political identities and affiliations. One of them was relatively pro-establishment while the other was less so.

About five years after assuming power in AD 527, this tyrant attempted a sudden revolution in which much of Constantinople (including the city’s church) was burned to the ground and rebels opposed to Justinian. A new king was claimed and crowned.

After initially preparing to flee the capital, Justinian (at the encouragement of his illustrious wife Theodora) decided to brutally crush the rebellion. As many as 30,000 rebels and others were put to death, and Justinian combined church and state to implement a more authoritarian regime and founded a new grand church on unorthodox architectural principles. The Hagia Sophia (meaning ‘divine wisdom’) was in many ways very different from any building built in ancient history. First of all, it had an unconventional size of about 250,000 square meters. Second, then and even today it has a courtyard of about 5200 square meters.

Now, for the first time, archaeologists’ discoveries have given researchers the opportunity to look at Justinian’s great church and understand its political significance.