HAGIA SOPHIA
Consecrated in 537 AD, Hagia Sophia - which means Holy Wisdom - was the
largest building in the world, fireproof, with four immense pillars held together with
molten lead which supported four arches and lesser domes, creating a space so
overwhelming it seems to defy the laws of gravity. Indeed, people were scared to enter
it at first in case the dome collapsed. The designs were drawn up by Anthemius of
Tralles, a noted mathematician, and Isidorus of Miletus, the last head of the Athens
Academy. Colour was provided by stone and marble brought from other parts of the
Justinian empire: red from the temple of Boalbek and green from Ephesus. At one time
it was bright with golden ornaments and chandeliers. With the
Turkish conquest in 1453, it became a mosque, with the addition
of the corner minarets, and many of the decorations were
concealed with whitewash. These were gradually restored by
Thomas Whittemore, of the Byzantine Museum of America,
after the building became a museum on the instructions of
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in 1933.
E X E R C I S E 1: Find words or phrases
in the passage which mean the same as:
COLUMN A COLUMN B
a) officially declare an object or a building to be
holy
b) knowledge or understanding of what is true and
right
c) unable to be damaged by fire
d) extremely large
e) a tall column of stone, wood, etc., which
supports something in a building
f) liquefied form of something solid, e.g. metal,
which has been heated
g) a curved structure in a building, e.g. in the roof,
above a door
h) smaller
i) a round roof, e.g. the roof of a mosque
j) causing a feeling of being small, helpless, and
astonished
k) go against; refuse to obey
I) the force which makes things stay on or drop to
the ground instead of staying in the air
m) well-known; admired
n) building used for worship
o) thing used for decoration
p) something hanging from the ceiling which
consists of several branches of lights
q) hide
Dostları ilə paylaş: