Hagia Sophia, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is one of Turkey's most visited monuments. The change in the status of Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia is now being debated in the country and it could be reconverted into a mosque. The CNN Turk TV earlier reported that Turkey’s Council of State had discussed the issue on July 2 on instructions from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Hagia Sophia

The Hagia Sophia is an example of Byzantine architecture built in 532-537 on the orders of the Emperor Justinian I. After the fall of the Byzantine Empire, the cathedral was converted into a mosque in 1453. In 1935, under a decree signed by founder of the modern Turkish state Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the cathedral became a museum. In 1985, the building was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List.