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44 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 44 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Justinian's church was inaugurated with great pomp on 27 December of which year?
537
The church was inaugurated on 27 December 537, five years and ten months after work began in February 532 on the site of the burned second church.
Q 02Isidore of Miletus and Anthemius of Tralles, designers of Justinian's church, were primarily what?
geometers
Anthemius of Tralles and Isidore of Miletus were geometers by training: Anthemius a mathematician who wrote on burning mirrors and conic sections, Isidore a professor of geometry who compiled Archimedes.
Q 03What does the name 'Hagia Sophia' mean?
Holy Wisdom
Hagia Sophia is Greek for Holy Wisdom, a title of Christ rather than a saint's name; the neighbouring older church Hagia Irene means Holy Peace.
Q 04The second church on the site was burned to the ground in January 532 during which uprising?
the Nika riots
The Nika riots of January 532, which began in the Hippodrome next door, burned the second church; Justinian laid out the present building weeks later.
Q 05On seeing the finished church, Justinian is said to have declared he had surpassed which biblical king?
Solomon
Justinian is said to have exclaimed 'Solomon, I have outdone thee' at the dedication, setting his church against Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem.
Q 06Roughly how many people were employed to build Justinian's church?
More than 10,000
More than 10,000 workers were employed on Justinian's church, with marble and columns brought from across the empire; the building rose in under six years.
Q 07Who rebuilt Hagia Sophia's dome, higher and ribbed, after its collapse in the 558 earthquake?
Isidorus the Younger
Isidorus the Younger, nephew of Isidore of Miletus, rebuilt the dome after the 558 collapse, raising it about 6.25 m on a steeper ribbed profile; it was rededicated in 562.
Q 08What are the four curved triangular supports carrying Hagia Sophia's main dome called?
pendentives
Pendentives, the four spherical triangles between the arches, let Hagia Sophia's round dome sit on a square bay; Ottoman mosques copied the device a millennium later.
Q 09Roughly how far above the floor is the top of the central dome?
56 m
The crown of the dome is about 56 m (55.6 m) above the floor; it rests on an arcade of 40 windows that makes it appear to float.
Q 10Justinian had eight Corinthian columns shipped from which ancient city, now in Lebanon?
Baalbek
Eight Corinthian columns were taken from Baalbek in Lebanon and shipped to Constantinople for the church, alongside marble quarried specially across the empire.
Q 11The floor is mostly Proconnesian marble, quarried on an island in which sea?
the Sea of Marmara
Proconnesian marble comes from Proconnesus, today's Marmara Island in the Sea of Marmara, whose very name derives from the Greek word for marble.
Q 12Which emperor's 726 edicts against images led to all religious pictures being removed from Hagia Sophia?
Leo the Isaurian
Leo the Isaurian (Leo III) issued edicts against the veneration of images in 726, and Hagia Sophia's religious pictures were stripped out; figural mosaics returned only after iconoclasm ended in 843.
Q 13Which Rus' prince sent the envoys whose awe at Hagia Sophia helped him choose Orthodoxy?
Vladimir the Great
Q 21The 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 22Empress Irene's blond plaits in the 1122 Comnenus mosaic reveal her descent from which country?
Hungary
Irene was born Piroska, daughter of King Ladislaus I of Hungary; she married John II Comnenus, and their eldest son Alexius appears on an adjacent pilaster.
Q 23Hagia Sophia's 'sweating column' has been moist, legend says, since which saint appeared beside it in 1200?
Gregory Thaumaturgus
Legend says Gregory Thaumaturgus, the Miracle Worker, appeared by the column in 1200; visitors since have pressed a thumb into its hole and turned it, hoping the damp cures ailments.
Vladimir the Great sent envoys to examine his neighbours' faiths around 987; their awe at the liturgy in Hagia Sophia helped him choose Orthodox Christianity in 988.
Q 14Which Rus' ruler was probably baptised in Hagia Sophia's baptistery in the 950s, taking the name Helena?
Olga of Kiev
Olga of Kiev, regent for her young son Sviatoslav, travelled to Constantinople and was baptised there about 957, taking the Christian name Helena.
Q 15Which Armenian architect did Basil II hire to repair Hagia Sophia's dome after the 989 earthquake?
Trdat
Basil II brought in Trdat, the Armenian architect of Ani Cathedral, to rebuild the western arch and part of the dome after the 989 quake; the church reopened on 13 May 994.
Q 16The delivery of a papal excommunication in Hagia Sophia in 1054 is considered the start of what?
the East–West Schism
The East–West Schism is dated from July 1054, when Cardinal Humbert, envoy of Pope Leo IX, laid a bull excommunicating Patriarch Michael Cerularius on Hagia Sophia's altar.
Q 17Runic graffiti in the northern gallery is believed to have been carved by members of which unit?
the Varangian Guard
Members of the Varangian Guard, the emperor's Norse bodyguard, are thought to have scratched the runes; one in the south gallery reads roughly 'Halvdan was here'.
Q 18During which crusade was Hagia Sophia sacked and turned into a Latin Catholic cathedral in 1204?
the Fourth
The Fourth Crusade took Constantinople in April 1204; Niketas Choniates records mules led into Hagia Sophia to haul off loot, one disembowelled on the marble floor.
Q 19Which Venetian doge, who led the 1204 sack of Constantinople, is buried inside Hagia Sophia?
Enrico Dandolo
Enrico Dandolo, the blind nonagenarian doge who steered the crusaders into Constantinople, died there in 1205; the slab bearing his name in the upper gallery is a later marker, not his tomb.
Q 20The Deësis mosaic in the upper gallery was commissioned to mark what?
the end of 57 years of Latin Catholic use
The Deësis, probably from 1261, marked the end of 57 years of Latin Catholic use after Michael VIII retook the city; it shows Christ between the Virgin and John the Baptist.
Q 24On what date in 1453 did Constantinople fall to the Ottomans?
29 May
Constantinople fell on 29 May 1453 after a 53-day siege; the church was looted during the three days of pillage and then converted into a mosque.
Q 25Hagia Sophia was Istanbul's principal mosque until 1616, when which new mosque took over the role?
the Sultan Ahmed
The Sultan Ahmed Mosque, the Blue Mosque, was completed in 1616 directly across the square and took over as the city's principal mosque; its six minarets and cascading domes answer Hagia Sophia.
Q 26Which sultan brought two colossal candlesticks from his conquest of Hungary and placed them beside the mihrab?
Suleiman the Magnificent
Suleiman the Magnificent, sultan from 1520 to 1566, brought the two giant candlesticks home as war booty and set them either side of the mihrab.
Q 27Which Ottoman architect strengthened Hagia Sophia with buttresses and added two minarets under Selim II?
Mimar Sinan
Mimar Sinan, Selim II's chief architect, shored up Hagia Sophia with heavy buttresses and added two minarets in the 1570s; he also designed Selim's türbe beside the church.
Q 28Murad III imported two large alabaster Hellenistic urns for the nave from which ancient city?
Pergamon
Murad III, sultan from 1574 to 1595, had the two alabaster urns, Hellenistic work from Pergamon, brought to Hagia Sophia and set either side of the nave.
Q 29The major 1847-49 restoration was carried out by which pair of Swiss-Italian architect brothers?
the Fossatis
The Fossatis, Swiss-Italian brothers Gaspare and Giuseppe Fossati, restored Hagia Sophia for Abdulmejid I in 1847-49, bracing the dome with an iron chain and levelling the minarets' heights.
Q 30Besides Allah, Muhammad and his two grandsons, whose names are on the Hagia Sophia's eight giant medallions?
the first four caliphs
The other medallions carry the names of the first four caliphs, Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali; calligrapher Kazasker Mustafa Izzet Efendi made the set in the 1840s.