Turkey’s Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque in Istanbul held its first Tarawih prayer in 88 years late Friday, a special evening prayer during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
A number of events for Ramadan will also be held at the mosque, which was converted into a museum in 1934 and regained its status as a mosque in 2020, when it was opened for worship on July 24 of that year.
Built 1,500 years ago as an Orthodox Christian cathedral, Hagia Sophia was converted into a mosque after the Ottoman conquest in 1453.
In 1934 it became a museum and is now a Unesco World Heritage site.
After the conversion to a mosque images depicting the Virgin Mary and the archangel Gabriel, which are situated in the direction Muslims face during prayer, have been obscured.
