The Ayasophia of today, accepted as one of the greatest monuments of the history of architecture, was built approximately 1500 years ago by two architects from Anthmios of Tralles (Aydin). Approximately ten thousand laborers under the supervision of a hundred master craftsmen constructed the present building, commissioned by the Emperor Justinian and completed on December 27, 537. Ayasophia was regarded with great affecyion and solicitude by th eByzantine emperors who succeeded Justinian. It became a mosque after the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453. This scared building in Istanbul was also held in great esteem by the Ottoman Sultans. In the 16th Century, during the reign of Selim II, Sinan, Architect-in-Chief to the Sultan constructed gigantic buttresses that prevented Ayasophia from collapsing. In the garden of Ayasophia is the biggest of the Ottoman royal tombs, containing the bodies of a number of Sultans and princes. After the founding of the present day Turkish Republic in 1923 by Kemal Ataturk, Ayasophia became a museum. It is regarded as a monument of cultural heritage for the whole of mankind - "The Temple of Humanity" - and its doors are open to everyone.
