They have changed it since you last visited. It is now primarily used as a mosque instead of a museum. The old floors have been covered by a carpet and it hosts several prayers a day.
https://www.dailysabah.com/turkey/istanbul/istanbuls-reverte...
the floor is now covered, the upper levels are closed off to visitors. it seems to be working just like any other mosque, which you can also visit (like the one in the article, for example)
Re:Istanbul's Blue Tile Paradise
by OkayPhysicist on Wednesday July 12, 2023 @07:15PM
(#36702963)
I've been several times over the last decade, and you've missed the most recent changes: As of my last trip a couple weeks ago it's now pretty heavily leaned into the mosque angle, with you having to take off your shoes to enter just like any other mosque, and they also covered up the stucco depictions of humans inside with large tapestries.
It's still aggressively available to the public, but you're not going to see much of the pre-Ottoman era inside.
Re:Istanbul's Blue Tile Paradise
by ChainOfFools on Wednesday July 12, 2023 @07:45PM
(#36703237)
It sounds like I did miss quite a lot of change, as of 2016 or 2017 I could still walk around pretty much anywhere on both levels and all of the main frescoes were still exposed (although a lot of material was still covered under plaster ... ostensibly for preservation). there was an minbar bar in the apse but it was skewed at an odd angle in a way that looked like it hadnt been used in quite a long time.
Did they cover up the frescoes in the pendentives of the main dome that depict the (very much non-human looking) seraphim?
Last time I was there a few years ago I recall there's a small section near one of the lower galleries off to the side that has been reopened for use as a sort-of-mosque but it's the size of a couple double wide trailers and not really part of the main structure as people think of it. It might be a test of the waters to see how far they can go but I promise you, money will trump religion in this case no question about it.