Turkey is set to begin restoration and reinforcement work on the dome of the Hagia Sophia, experts said on Monday (April 14), marking one of the biggest repair efforts on the 1486-year-old structure. - REUTERS
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00:00Istanbul's Ayasofya is about to undergo one of its biggest repairs,
00:05as Turkey begins restoring and reinforcing the dome on the nearly 1,500-year-old structure.
00:11Experts say the project will focus on weak structural points,
00:15determined during simulations of a large earthquake.
00:20Esnub Bilban Yalcin, a Byzantine art historian at Istanbul University,
00:25said the restoration process will be difficult.
00:28Ayasofya was of course destroyed by major disasters,
00:36and also went through various restorations both in the Byzantine and Ottoman periods.
00:41Of course, we do not know the historical records of the very old ones very well,
00:45whether they were very comprehensive or not.
00:48But since it will be built in the best and most comprehensive way,
00:52with the technology and methods currently used in the modern age,
00:56it probably opens an important page in the book of Ayasofya.
01:00Ayasofya was the largest cathedral in the world for 900 years,
01:05until it was turned into a mosque during the Ottoman conquest.
01:09The building was then converted into a museum by Turkey's secular republic more than 70 years ago.
01:14President Tayyip Erdogan turned it back into a mosque in 2020.
01:19It is expected to remain open to worshippers and visitors during the restoration process.
01:24No date of completion has been given.
01:27No date of completion has been given.