82 NOVEMBER 2023 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL LOCAL LENS BY DAVE PANETTI n ISTANBUL, TÜRKIYE Hagia Sophia, or “Holy Wisdom,” has been standing on this spot in Istanbul since the fourth century. Rebuilt by the Byzantine emperor Justinian the First between 532 and 537 CE, Aya Sofya (in Turkish) was the largest cathedral in the world until the Seville Cathedral was completed in 1520. It served as an Eastern Orthodox Church and later Catholic Cathedral until the fall of Constantinople in 1453, when it was converted into a mosque. It remained a working mosque until the establishment of the Turkish Republic and was a museum from 1935 until July 2020 when it was reclassified as a mosque once again. n Joining the Foreign Service in 2011, Dave Panetti has served in Port-au-Prince, Chisinau, Baghdad, and Istanbul. He is currently posted to Leipzig. He took this photo of the UNESCO World Heritage Site in March 2021 using an iPhone 11. Please submit your favorite, recent photograph to be considered for Local Lens. Images must be high resolution (at least 300 dpi at 8” x 10”, or 1 MB or larger) and must not be in print elsewhere. Include a short description of the scene/ event, as well as your name, brief biodata, and the type of camera used. Send to locallens@afsa.org.
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