ΤΟΥΡΚΟΙ ΔΙΑΦΗΜΙΣΤΕΣ

ΑΦΟΥ ΠΡΩΤΑ ΚΑΤΕΣΤΡΕΨΑΝ ΤΩΡΑ ΕΜΦΑΝΙΖΟΝΤΑΙ ΣΑΝ ΘΕΜΑΤΟΦΥΛΑΚΕΣ ΚΑΙ ΟΙΚΕΙΟΠΟΙΟΥΝΤΑΙ ΤΑ ΙΕΡΑ ΚΑΙ ΟΣΙΑ ΜΑΣ.

Republic Of Turkey - Turkish Tourism Office 

Recently, restoration workers uncovered a well-preserved, long-hidden mosaic face of an angel at the former Byzantine cathedral of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, which today stands as one of the oldest and most impressive museums in the world. The restoration workers were the first to lay eyes on the seraphim figure – a representation so significant that it was mentioned in the Bible – for what experts believe to be well over 700 years.
The mosaic had been covered up – along with the hallowed building's other Christian likenesses – shortly after the city, then called Constantinople, fell to the Ottomans in 1453 and the cathedral was turned into a mosque. The mosaics were plastered over according to Muslim custom that prohibits the representation of humans.
Hagia Sophia, also called the Church of Holy Wisdom, was built in 537 A.D. and remained a symbol of Byzantine grandeur until Istanbul was conquered by Ottoman Empire. The building was turned into a museum in 1935 when the modern-day Republic of Turkey was little more than a decade old.
Though the six-winged angel’s incredible discovery stands as an extreme example, uncovering antiquity is no uncommon occurrence in this millennia-old city. For example, recently an ancient ship was uncovered during a subway expansion project and, in Hagia Sophia itself, three more angel mosaics remain still uncovered and yet to be discovered, For travelers, these are simply two more reasons to explore one of the most storied cities on earth, where the cosmopolitan coexists with the ancient in one of the true cradles of civilization..