Last week, Turkey’s Council of State began studying a request by a group of Turkish citizens seeking to turn Hagia Sophia back into a mosque.

People making that request wants to cancel a 1934 decision by the Council of Ministers, which turned the historic structure into a museum.

Hagia Sophia is the former Greek Orthodox Christian patriarchal cathedral, later an Ottoman imperial mosque in Istanbul, Turkey. It is famous for its large dome. Built in AD 537, during the reign of Justinian, it was the world's largest building and an engineering marvel of its time.

In 1453, Istanbul was conquered by the Ottoman Empire under Mehmed the Conqueror, who ordered this main church of Eastern Orthodox Christianity converted into a mosque.

It remained a mosque until 1931 when it was closed to the public for four years. It was re-opened in 1935 as a museum by the Republic of Turkey.

ILKHA