50 free Hagia Sophia trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Hagia Sophia trivia for travellers, Byzantine history buffs and anyone who has stood under that dome and wondered how it stays up. The quiz starts with the two churches that burned on the site before Justinian I ordered a third in 532, the mathematician and geometer he hired, the ten thousand workers, the boast about Solomon, and the earthquake that brought the first dome down twenty years later. From there it follows nine centuries as the cathedral of Constantinople: iconoclasm, the baptism of Olga of Kiev, the runic graffiti left by Varangian guards, the 1054 excommunication that split the churches, the Fourth Crusade's mules in the sanctuary, and the doge buried in the gallery. Later rounds cover 1453 and the conversion by Mehmed the Conqueror, the minarets and buttresses added by Mimar Sinan, the Fossati brothers' restoration and their giant calligraphic medallions, Atatürk's museum, the wishing column, the Empress Zoe and Deësis mosaics, and the 2020 reversion to a mosque. Questions run from easy to expert and every answer was checked against a reference page and carries its source. See also our Istanbul, Turkey and Byzantine Empire quizzes.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Justinian's church was inaugurated with great pomp on 27 December of which year?
537
Construction had taken five years and ten months; the second church on the site had burned in the Nika riots weeks before work began.
Q 02Isidore of Miletus and Anthemius of Tralles, designers of Justinian's church, were primarily what?
geometers
Both were associated with the school of the pagan philosopher Ammonius of Alexandria.
Q 03What does the name 'Hagia Sophia' mean?
Holy Wisdom
The neighbouring, older Hagia Irene is 'Holy Peace'; neither is named after a saint.
Q 04The second church on the site was burned to the ground in January 532 during which uprising?
the Nika riots
The riot began in the Hippodrome next door; Procopius wrote that the rioters 'had the hardihood to fire the Church of the Christians'.
Q 05On seeing the finished church, Justinian is said to have declared he had surpassed which biblical king?
Solomon
The reference was to the Temple in Jerusalem; the new church took five years and ten months to build.
Q 06Roughly how many people were employed to build Justinian's church?
More than 10,000
The initial funding, 4,000 Roman pounds of gold, came via the praetorian prefect Phocas.
Q 07The original dome collapsed in an earthquake in 558. Who rebuilt it, higher and ribbed, by 562?
Isidorus the Younger
The nephew of the original architect raised the vault by about 6.25 m, giving today's interior height of 55.6 m.
Q 08The main dome sits on four curved triangular supports, an early large-scale use of the form. What are they called?
pendentives
They let a round dome sit on a square base, a trick copied in Ottoman mosques a thousand years later.
Q 09Roughly how far above the floor is the top of the central dome?
56 m
The dome rests on an arcade of 40 windows and is only about 0.61 m thick.
Q 10Which 12th-century abbey church ended Hagia Sophia's 500-year run as the world's largest church?
Cluny
The great Burgundian abbey held the title until St Peter's in Rome.
Q 11Justinian had eight Corinthian columns shipped from which ancient city, now in Lebanon?
Baalbek
Most of the marble was actually cut specially for the church, despite the old story that the columns were spoils from Rome and Ephesus.
Q 12The floor is mostly Proconnesian marble, quarried on an island in which sea?
the Sea of Marmara
Mehmed II is said to have struck a soldier with his sword for trying to prise up one of the slabs in 1453.
Q 13Which emperor's 726 edicts against images led to all religious pictures being removed from Hagia Sophia?
Leo the Isaurian
Byzantine iconoclasm paused briefly under Empress Irene before returning; later mosaics date from after its final defeat.
Q 21The Deësis mosaic in the upper gallery, probably from 1261, was commissioned to mark what?
the end of 57 years of Latin Catholic use
It is one of the finest surviving Byzantine mosaics, showing Christ flanked by the Virgin and John the Baptist.
Q 22The 11th-century south gallery mosaic shows Christ flanked by Constantine IX and which empress?
Zoe
The emperor's face and name were reworked, since Zoe outlived two earlier husbands who had occupied the same spot.
Q 23Empress Irene's blond plaits in the 1122 Comnenus mosaic reveal her descent from which country?
Hungary
Q 14Kievan Rus' emissaries said of Hagia Sophia they 'did not know where we were', in heaven or where?
on earth
The report is often credited with steering the Rus' toward Orthodox Christianity rather than Islam or Latin Christianity.
Q 15Which Rus' ruler was probably baptised in Hagia Sophia's baptistery in the 950s, taking the name Helena?
Olga of Kiev
The regent for her infant son Sviatoslav; Kiev's own Saint Sophia cathedral probably commemorates her baptism.
Q 16Which Armenian architect did Basil II hire to repair Hagia Sophia's dome after the 989 earthquake?
Trdat
The repairs took six years and the church reopened on 13 May 994 with new decorations.
Q 17The delivery of a papal excommunication in Hagia Sophia in 1054 is considered the start of what?
the East–West Schism
Cardinal Humbert, envoy of Pope Leo IX, laid the bull against Patriarch Michael Cerularius on the altar.
Q 18Runic graffiti in the northern gallery is believed to have been carved by members of which unit?
the Varangian Guard
One inscription in the south gallery reads 'Halvdan was here', probably the work of a Viking mercenary in imperial service.
Q 19During which crusade was Hagia Sophia sacked and turned into a Latin Catholic cathedral in 1204?
the Fourth
The chronicler Niketas Choniates says mules were led into the sanctuary to carry off loot and one was disembowelled on the marble floor.
Q 20Which Venetian doge, who led the 1204 sack of Constantinople, is buried inside Hagia Sophia?
Enrico Dandolo
The Ottomans destroyed his tomb; the marker visible today is a 19th-century cenotaph placed by Italian restorers.
She was the daughter of King Ladislaus I; their eldest son Alexius appears on an adjacent pilaster.
Q 24Hagia Sophia's 'sweating column' has been moist, legend says, since which saint appeared beside it in 1200?
Gregory Thaumaturgus
Visitors put a thumb in the hole and turn it, believing the moisture cures illness.
Q 25The Imperial Gate between the outer and inner narthex was originally reserved for whom?
the emperor and his retinue
The mosaic above it shows an emperor, probably Leo VI the Wise, prostrate before Christ Pantocrator.
Q 26On what date in 1453 did Constantinople fall to the Ottomans?
29 May
The building was looted during the customary three days of pillage before Mehmed ordered it converted into a mosque.
Q 27Hagia Sophia was Istanbul's principal mosque until 1616, when which new mosque took over the role?
the Sultan Ahmed
The 'Blue Mosque' stands directly across the square, and its architecture openly imitates its neighbour.
Q 28Which sultan brought two colossal candlesticks from his conquest of Hungary and placed them beside the mihrab?
Suleiman the Magnificent
During his reign the mosaics of Jesus, Mary and the emperors were whitewashed over; the plaster came off in 1930.
Q 29Which Ottoman architect strengthened Hagia Sophia with buttresses and added two minarets under Selim II?
Mimar Sinan
He also built Selim II's mausoleum beside the church, later the resting place of 43 Ottoman princes.
Q 30Murad III imported two large alabaster Hellenistic urns for the nave from which ancient city?
Pergamon
They still stand either side of the nave, near the entrance.