Erdogan Visits Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Shares Photos Ahead of 1st Muslim Prayers

On July 10, Turkey's highest administrative court, the Council of State, annulled the decree converting Hagia Sophia into a museum.

The move was not particularly welcomed abroad. Austria, France, Greece, Cyprus, Russia and the United States were among the countries that expressed regrets over Ankara's decision, while Turkey views the matter as its internal affairs.

Erdogan shared the photos on Twitter, describing them with one word, "Ayasofya..."

The Turkish leader was accompanied by several ministers and the head of the Presidency of Religious Affairs, as well as Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy and Istanbul Governor Ali Yerlikaya, who briefed Erdogan on the work inside Hagia Sophia.

The former Christian cathedral was founded by Byzantine Emperor Justinian on December 27, 537. The church, considered the epitome of Byzantine architecture, was the world's largest building for over a thousand years. After the capture of Constantinople by the Ottomans and the fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453, the cathedral was converted into a mosque, but since 1934, the building, by a decree of the founder of the Republic of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, became a museum and was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.