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Hagia Sophia Damaged.

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Simon:
New article , short but sad.
https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/hagia-sophia-marble-floors-suffer-tremendous-damage-1234633143/

I was just in Istanbul last week but i did not visit it this time.

Virgil H:
This is very sad, as well as earlier vandalism that I didn't know about reported in the article. I first visited there in the late 70s and most recently I took my wife there in 2012. Such an incredible place. When the controversial announcement that it was being converted back into a mosque, I actually thought that was OK. It had been a mosque before and time moves on. It was horrible what happened to the art when Islamic rule came in in the Middle Ages, but I also understand it. I saw so much defaced Christian art in Turkey and that was sad. As a modern person interested in history, I hated seeing this stuff, but how can we really judge. In today's world, I think we perhaps can judge more as everyone should have an appreciation of history one would hope. But, I remember back in the 70s seeing poor people living in the walls of Constantinople and we all know that ancient sites provided building supplies for much more recent people. Not to mention the European and US museums literally stealing things from Turkey and other countries. I recall going to Pergamom and thinking I really wish the altar of Zeus was still there instead of in the museum in Berlin. I never made it to Berlin because my security clearance back then did not allow me to travel by train across East Germany. Anyway, I hate seeing senseless stuff like this. Thanks for posting.

Virgil

cmcdon0923:
I agree, terrible news.

I've been to Istanbul twice, unfortunately only for layovers for connecting flights.  I wish I could have had a few hours between flights so I could have attempted to get to visit it.

It's still on my bucket list of things I want to see.  I was able to check off the Pyramids and Sphinx off that list a few years ago, so maybe there's still hope.


Craig

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