Mystery of Hagia Sophia on display with 15-year project

ISTANBUL - Anatolia News Agency

The photos beneath the Hagia Sophia have been taken by documentary maker Göksel Gülensoy and his team with a project of 15 years. DHA photo

A new exhibition will display the photos of cisterns, wells and tunnels of Istanbul’s historic Hagia Sophia, which have been taken by documentary maker Göksel Gülensoy and his team in 15 years. The exhibition, titled “Beneath Hagia Sophia,” will open on March 2.

According to a statement on the exhibition, there are hundreds of legends on the wells, cisterns and tunnels of Hagia Sophia, which is one of the oldest structures in the world and is visited by nearly 4 million people per year. Among these legends are the tunnels that reach the Princes’ Islands, the graves of various saints, a crypto room where secret documents are kept, jewelry thrown into the wells by noble women before being seized by enemies, and the Justinian’s road between the palace and the hippodrome.

Gülensoy and his team, who worked to shed light on such mysteries in the Hagia Sophia, photographed never-before-seen places in their project.

The exhibition will open at Pero Art Café Galata at 3 p.m on March 2.