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FROM KIMBERLY

This is the lovely Nuruosmaniye Mosque in Istanbul. It fairly glows, it's white marble walls punctuated with paned windows, allowing sunlight into the sanctuary. Nuruosmaniye means "the light of Osman", named so after the sultan who completed the building in 1755. This 18th century mosque is considered a masterpiece of Baroque Ottoman architecture. The "mother" and architectural inspiration for many mosques like this, is Hagia Sophia, built in the 6th century as a Christian Greek Orthodox Basilica. Byzantium/Constantinople/Istanbul has a long and fascinating history being at the crossroads of Asia and Europe, a nexus of commercial, cultural, artistic, diplomatic and religious systems