Hagia Sophia is a cathedral built at Constantinople, now Istanbul, in the 6th century CE under the direction of the Byzantine emperor Justinian I. Built in 537, it is now officially the Great Mosque of Ayasofya.
Turkish leader Recep Tayyir Erdogan recently declared the building will be a mosque. Before that, Hagia Sophia served as a museum.
But in this video, we take a look at the engineering secrets of the magnificent building, not its religious significance.
Originally, it was constructed as a church between 532 and 537. It was the third Church of the Holy Wisdom to occupy the site. The two previous were destroyed by rioters in the Nika Revolt.
Greek geometers Isidore of Miletus and Anthemius of Trailers designed the building. Here is a look at the secrets they put inside, years before engineering was a thing.
