Hagia Sophi, Instanbul Turkey--Jessica Cardenas

Saint Sophia is finest and most famous of Byzantine architecture in the world. It is located in Istanbul, next to the Blue Mosque in the Sultan Ahmet Square of Istanbul.

Hagia Sophia was built as a Constantinian Church by the emperor Justinian I, between A.D. 532 and 537 and in it's ancient time, it represented the largest covered space in the world. It's architects were Isidore of Miletus and Anthemius of Tralles

Today Saint Sophia is neither a Church nor a Mosque but it is a museum 

 The main ground plan of the building is a rectangle, 230 feet in width and 246 feet in length. The area is covered by a central dome of 102 feet.

The main dome is carried on pendentives: (four concave triangular sections of masonry). Each pendentive is decorated with a seraphim. The weight of the dome passes through the pendentives to four massive piers at the corners, and between them the dome seems to float upon four great arches

 The modern exit from the Hagia Sophia is through the Vestibule of the Warriors,  because it is where the emperor's bodyguards waited while he worshipped. As you walk out is a mosaic of the Virgin with Constantine and Justinian:  This mosaic dates probably from the 10th century.