How to Buy Hagia Sophia Tickets & What to Expect

The Hagia Sophia is likely one of the most fashionable sights in Istanbul, and for good motive – it’s an unbelievable place!

If you’re planning a visit to Istanbul, make certain to place the Hagia Sophia in your listing of must-sees.

Guided Hagia Sophia tickets are comparatively cheap, and there are just a few alternative ways to purchase them. You should buy tickets on the door, or prematurely on-line. We advocate shopping for your tickets on-line forward of time to keep away from any strains or crowds on the attraction. Trust us, visiting the Hagia Sophia is an expertise you gained’t wish to miss!

Buying tickets for to the Hagia Sophia

However, shopping for Hagia Sophia tickets could be a bit complicated, particularly if you happen to’re not acquainted with the town or how Turkish ticketing works.

To prevent some hassle (and show you how to take advantage of your journey!), right here’s a fast information on the right way to purchase tickets to see the Hagia Sophia. The very first thing it’s essential know is that there are two forms of tickets: a daily and free entrance ticket and a guided tour ticket.

The common free entrance ticket will acquire you entry to the Hagia Sophia, however doesn’t embrace any data or steerage in regards to the constructing itself. On the opposite hand, the guided tour ticket consists of an audio information in addition to entry to sure components of the Hagia Sophia which can be normally closed off to guests. If you’re seeking to be taught extra in regards to the historical past and story behind this unbelievable piece of structure, we advocate going with the guided tour possibility!

However, if you happen to’re brief on time or simply wish to discover at your individual tempo, then getting a daily entrance ticket would suffice.

You can purchase a guided tour ticket right here or a guided tour ticket with a historian right here.

Good to find out about visiting Hagia Sophia

Purchasing Hagia Sophia tickets is a straightforward course of, however there are some things it is best to consider before you purchase.

First and foremost, it’s essential to know that the Hagia Sophia is closed on Mondays.

Secondly, admission to the Hagia Sophia is free, until you want to have a information, telling you extra about this lovely constructing and its historical past.

Then we advocate shopping for a tour prematurely on-line. Not solely will this prevent time, but it surely’ll additionally mean you can reap the benefits of discounted charges for teams of 10 or extra folks. So how do you buy tickets on-line?

Decide what number of tickets you want. Then merely fill out your contact data and hit “submit.” It’s that straightforward!

If you wish to go to different close by points of interest just like the Topkapi Palace or the Sunken Palace, then you definitely’ll must buy a multi-site ticket.

Once you’ve your ticket, merely present it to the safety guard on the entrance and revel in your go to!

For guided excursions you’ll have a free admission for kids below 2 years outdated. Discounted ticket costs for kids 3 to 7 years outdated (with legitimate photograph ID). Audio guides obtainable relying on the ticket possibility booked.

Hagia Sophia Highlight Tour with Guide and Audio Guide App

This is a ticket for an unique, guided VIP tour of the Hagia Sophia. Book your Hagia Sophia Tour on-line now and benefit from the Highlights Tour with included Audio Guide App!

Price: €14.25

Discount: 5%

• Bestseller Tour
• Instant Confirmation
• Free Cancelation
• Directly Available

Book right here!

How the Hagia Sophia go to works

After you place your order, you’ll obtain a affirmation with the assembly level and particulars for downloading the Hagia Sophia Audio App. Your Istanbul Welcome Card information will meet you on the Hagia Sophia and escort you inside for a 30 minute tour, offering important historic data alongside the way in which. After the tour, be happy to ask your information something in regards to the Hagia Sophia, Byzantine Empire or Istanbul. You’ll additionally obtain a Hagia Sophia map so to discover by yourself and be taught extra via audio commentary in your smartphone app.

Important data

You gained’t have the ability to lower the safety line. During excessive season, the safety verify can take as much as half-hour.

Your benefits

Be versatile – You decide the beginning time and tempo
Individual Travel – You don’t depending on a gaggle!
User pleasant

Combi ticket: Hagia Sophia, Topkapi Palace and Sunken Palace Basilica Cistern and Audio Guide App

Price: €51.30

Discount: 5%

Bestseller Tour
Instant Confirmation
Free Cancelation
Directly Available

You could cancel these Hagia Sophia tickets as much as 24 hours previous to the beginning of the expertise to obtain a full refund.

This VIP combo ticket will prevent money and time because it means that you can simply go to Hagia Sophia, Topkapi Palace and Sunken Palace. After your reservation, you’ll obtain a affirmation with assembly locations and occasions, in addition to obtain particulars for the Audio Apps. Your information will meet you in entrance of Topkapi Palace, Hagia Sophia and the Basilica Cistern. You will skip the ticket strains (besides Hagia Sophia) and revel in a 30 min highlights tour with a licensed native tour information inside every museum. Afterwards, you may keep at every sight so long as you need and take heed to thrilling tales in your included audio information apps in your smartphone.

Book this tour right here!

Combo ticket Istanbul is legitimate for 3 days

You can go to all 3 museums in 1 day or at totally different days. Your title shall be on our listing for 3 days. You can come on the obtainable occasions, to our assembly factors and go to together with your Istanbul Welcome Card information these prime museums.

Important data

You can skip ticket strains with guides, however can’t skip the safety line.

Your benefits

Be versatile – You decide the beginning time and tempo
Individual Travel – You don’t depending on a gaggle!
User pleasant

Sunken Palace: Quick entry with highlights tour + audio information

Price: €19.95
Duration: versatile
Included:
– Quick admission to the Sunken Palace
– English talking tour information
– Audio information
Cancellation deadline: You could cancel these tickets as much as 24 hours previous to the beginning of the expertise to obtain a full refund.

Book this ticket right here!

This is a VIP ticket for the Basilica Cistern. Buy it on-line to save lots of time by skipping the lengthy ticket strains. Plus, you’ll get a highlights tour and an audio information app!

Afterwards, you may spend as a lot time as you need indoors, listening to the informative audio information app in your smartphone, and discovering the Basilica Cistern at your individual tempo.

Hagia Sophia customer data

Hagia Sophia is located within the European aspect of Istanbul, within the Sultanahmet district (Old City), near Topkapi Palace. It’s only some minutes’ stroll from the accommodations in Sultanahmet. Istanbul International Airport is 20 km away.

Hagia Sophia is open day by day besides Mondays.

April 15-Oct 1 it’s open 9 am-7 pm with final admission at 6 pm;
Oct 1-April 15 it’s open 9am-5pm with final entry at 4pm.

Hagia Sophia closes for Ramadan and Eid Ul Adha holidays.

Is the Hagia Sophia barrier-free?

The first ground is accessible for wheelchair customers.

However, the higher ground isn’t accessible as a result of many steps and cobblestones.

Is pictures allowed in Hagia Sophia?

Yes, pictures is allowed contained in the Hagia Sophia.

However, using tripods is prohibited.

Is there a costume code to comply with at Hagia Sophia?

Yes, since it’s a non secular web site, all guests are anticipated to decorate modestly. If potential, shorts and sleeveless tops shouldn’t be worn.

Women should put on a scarf to enter the mosque. Free headscarves might be discovered close to the doorway.

In addition, guests should go away their footwear exterior.

More helpful details about the Hagia Sophia

Over time, Hagia Sophia has withstood quite a few occasions and disasters, comparable to the autumn of highly effective civilizations, fires or earthquakes.

Today, this landmark hides loads of fascinating tales. What began because the Church of St. Sophia ultimately grew to become the Hagia Sophia Mosque, then it was run as a museum and after a while it was transformed again right into a mosque.

Find out what makes this well-known landmark so particular right here:

Hagia Sophia is a type of locations that at all times appears to have one thing new to supply. No matter what number of occasions you go to there’s at all times some recent secret ready to be uncovered. It’s half church, half mosque – however its wealthy historical past implies that there’s rather more to study this place than meets the attention.

Let us take you on a tour via a few of the most attention-grabbing info and figures surrounding Hagia Sophia…

Extraordinary structure and brief building time of Hagia Sophia

Hagia Sophia was in-built an extremely brief period of time – solely six years! The architects who designed it had been forward of their time, utilizing data of mechanics and arithmetic that was uncommon for the period.

The constructing itself is a totally authentic design, combining options of a longitudinal basilica and a centralized constructing. It has an enormous, 32-meter important dome that hangs from the ceiling, in addition to two semidomes (half-domes) on both aspect of the longitudinal axis. In phrases of its format, the constructing is nearly sq.. It has three aisles, that are separated by columns.

There are additionally galleries above the aisles, and enormous marble pillars that assist the dome. The partitions above the galleries and the bottom of the dome have home windows that permit in pure mild. This hides the columns through the day, giving the impression that the cover is floating in mid-air.

Hagia Sophia Architecture

Hagia Sophia is an awe-inspiring architectural achievement and the primary of its type in Byzantine structure. It remained the biggest cathedral on the earth till Seville Cathedral was constructed. The vestibule positioned exterior the jap a part of the atrium is at present closed off.

To entry the inside atrium, there are 5 doorways one can enter via. From this vestibule, there are 9 doorways main into the nave itself. Access to higher galleries is made potential by ramps – a standard characteristic amongst Constantinople church buildings below building throughout that point interval.

Hagia Sophia Mosaics

The Hagia Sophia was superbly adorned with mosaics through the Byzantine interval, depicting the Virgin Mary, Jesus, saints and emperors or empresses. The historical past of the earliest mosaics is unknown, as lots of them had been destroyed or lined through the storming of the cathedral. The mosaics reached their peak through the reigns of Basil I and Constantine VII. During the Fourth Crusade in 1204, the Latin Crusaders looted many Byzantine buildings, together with Hagia Sophia. Many lovely mosaics had been eliminated and shipped to Venice.

After the Ottoman occupation of Constantinople in 1453 and the conversion of Hagia Sophia right into a mosque, the mosaics had been whitewashed or plastered. With the restoration of the Fosatti brothers in 1847, the mosaics had been uncovered. But they remained lined till 1931, when a restoration program started below the route of Thomas Whittemore.

In 1934, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk ordered that Hagia Sophia turn out to be a museum. The restoration and growth then occurred. However, most of the nice mosaics uncovered by the Fosatti brothers had been in all probability destroyed with the 1894 earthquake.

Tunnel of the Hagia Sophia

According to legend, Hagia Sophia was essential for the Vatican. There had been tunnels main from Hagia Sophia to the Princes Islands (Kinaliada). The underground tunnels ran via the town of Constantinople. The large cistern was positioned underground.

The tunnels below Hagia Sophia reached the hidden rooms with secret writings that had been hidden there through the sieges. Researchers revealed some tombs below the Hagia Sophia. Among them had been the tombs of St. Antinegos, the primary individual to be buried in Hagia Sophia, and Patriarch Athanasius.

Leading to Sultanahmet Square and Topkapi Palace are two slender corridors about 70 centimeters excessive, presumably utilized by Byzantine Emperor Theodosius II as a hidden escape path to keep away from being seen by residents in occasions of hazard or strife.

History of Hagia Sophia

The first church on the positioning of Hagia Sophia was in all probability constructed by Constantine I in 325, on the foundations of a pagan temple. His son, Constantius II, consecrated it in 360. It was broken in 404 by a fireplace that broke out throughout a riot, after the second exile of St. John Chrysostom, who was then the patriarch of Constantinople.

The church was rebuilt and enlarged by the Roman Emperor Constans I, after which rededicated by Theodosius II in 415. During the Nika revolt of January 532, the church was burned down once more. Justinian I used this as a possibility to construct an much more magnificent alternative.

Today’s construction is actually the identical because the constructing from the sixth century, though an earthquake induced a partial collapse of the dome in 558 (which was then restored in 562). There had been two different partial collapses after that, after which the construction was rebuilt smaller and strengthened from the surface.

For greater than a millennium, it served because the cathedral of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. However, it was sacked by the Venetians and Crusaders in 1204 through the Fourth Crusade.

After Constantinople was conquered by the Turks in 1453, Mehmed II had the church transformed right into a mosque. A wood minaret, massive chandelier, mihrab (area of interest indicating the route of Mecca), and minbar (pulpit) had been added. The crimson minaret on the southeast nook of the constructing was most probably constructed by Mehmed II or his son Bayezid II. The slender white minaret on the northeast aspect of the mosque was constructed by Bayezid II. The two an identical minarets on the west aspect had been commissioned by Selim II or Murad III and constructed by Ottoman architect Sinan within the 1500s.

The constructing was transformed right into a museum in 1935 by Turkish President Kemal Ataturk. Art historians consider the constructing’s lovely mosaics present vital perception into the state of mosaic artwork within the interval simply after the top of the iconoclastic controversy within the eighth and ninth centuries.

Hagia Sophia is a part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site, which additionally consists of different historic buildings and websites in Istanbul, such because the Blue Mosque.