アヤソフィア修復2026年：公開中か、地下トンネル、終了時期

Yes, Hagia Sophia is open to visitors while its restoration continues. In remarks reported on 3 November 2026, Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy said about 3,000 tonnes of mud and debris had been removed from the tunnels and chambers under the mosque, and that suitable sections are meant to open to visitors after conservation and safety work. He gave no date, and no official statement we read sets an end date for the restoration. The simplest way in now is our Hagia Sophia small-group tour, from $120 per person with the entry ticket included.

Photo: Joseolgon, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

What the minister said in November 2026

Ersoy was speaking to journalists at the Antalya Culture Route Festival, as Hürriyet Daily News, Daily Sabah and Euronews Türkçe reported on 3 November 2026:

• "We are conducting the most comprehensive restoration, conservation and reinforcement work in the history of the Republic at Hagia Sophia," he said, in Hürriyet Daily News's translation.
• Reinforcement continues on the main dome and has begun on the eastern semi-dome, above the mihrab and minbar.
• Underground, tunnels, water channels, vaults and cellars are being cleaned and documented. About 3,000 tonnes have come out, and in some sections the teams have found new spaces.
• The teams are studying systems that served rainwater drainage and water distribution, and some passages are large enough to walk through.
• A four-room underground tomb, or hypogeum, on the north-east side could shed light on periods before the present building.

The plan, as reported: show the underground areas to the press first, then open suitable sections once conservation, safety and visitor facilities are ready, with scientific findings and safety deciding which. That is an aim, not a timetable; no day, month or year was given.

Is Hagia Sophia open during the restoration?

Yes. The ministry says the work runs without stopping worship or visits, a point Ersoy made at a site briefing on 27 February 2026 and Professor Hasan Fırat Diker of the Hagia Sophia Scientific Committee repeated in September. Foreign visitors use the gallery route, for which the project has built entry and exit ramps, a temporary entrance tunnel, ticket booths, X-ray machines and turnstiles, the minister said in August. Ticket price, prayer-time pauses and dress code are in our Hagia Sophia ticket price update.

What you see inside and outside now

Inside, the prayer hall below the galleries is a work site. In February the minister described a steel platform 43.5 metres high, with a lift and stairs, installed after ground and vibration tests; the marble floor beneath it was documented, lifted and replaced by a temporary floor. In August he said the platform rests on the four main columns, so that prayer and restoration go on side by side, with scaffolding for the mosaic work on top. The photographs here, taken on 15 October 2026, show white steel towers on concrete bases in the prayer hall and the dome seen through the frame.

Outside, the main dome is covered: its lead has to come off, and it is being reinforced from the outside because the inner surface is mosaic, the minister said in August. Daily Sabah, reporting with Anadolu Agency on 11 September, said a temporary steel roof over the dome was complete, and in February Ersoy put the scaffolding on the facades and minarets at about 11,000 square metres.

In September, Daily Sabah reported that a steel working platform would go inside the eastern semi-dome, which structural models identify as the most vulnerable part of the building; by November, the minister said, reinforcement there had begun.

The restoration so far, date by date

The tunnels and the hypogeum

The underground work is in two areas, the minister said in February: the west garden, with three underground spaces and their tunnel lines, and the Vizier garden on the north side, where the hypogeum has a main corridor with symmetrical burial chambers on both sides. By August its excavation was finished, damaged vaults along parts of the 56-metre Space 2 and two tunnels had been repaired with material matching the original, and stainless-steel reinforcement was done along 50 metres of one tunnel.

None of these spaces is open, and no ticket covers them. For an underground visit in Sultanahmet today, there is the Basilica Cistern, a short walk away.

When will the Hagia Sophia restoration end?

No completion date has been announced. The February statement said the work follows the planned schedule, without publishing it, and the August and November statements gave no end date. In August the project still covered the main dome, the semi-domes and quarter domes, the Fatih and Mimar Sinan minarets, the mosaics, painted decoration, marble and woodwork, the baptistery, the ablution fountain and the tombs in the south garden. Until a date is published, plan a 2027 visit assuming the platform and dome cover may still be there; we will update this page when one is announced.

Two Hagia Sophia tickets: do not mix them up

• Hagia Sophia itself: the mosque's visitor ticket for the gallery route. Price and rules are in our ticket update.
• Hagia Sophia History and Experience Museum: a separate Ministry museum in the Defter-i Hakani building on Sultanahmet Square, with 13 halls. It opens daily from 09:00 to 20:00, box office until 19:00, and foreign adults pay €25 with an audio guide. The 2027 tariff raises it to €30 on 1 January 2027, three months before most museums change on 1 April (2027 museum prices).

Neither ticket includes the underground spaces. The tours below pair Hagia Sophia with the Blue Mosque, and two of them add Topkapı Palace; our Hagia Sophia guided tour page compares the options.

Tours that cover this

• Hagia Sophia Small-Group Tour with Entry Ticket, Blue Mosque & Bazaar: 6 hours with a licensed guide, pick-up at central hotels or Galataport from 08:00, Hagia Sophia ticket included, from $120 per person.
• Istanbul Full-Day Historical Tour: group day with Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, Topkapı and the Grand Bazaar, lunch and the listed entrance fees included, from $161 per person.
• Istanbul Old City Private Tour: your own licensed guide for 6 to 8 hours, museum tickets not included, from $200 per person.
• Istanbul Half-Day Morning Tour: group morning with Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque and the bazaar, from $67 per person; ask us to confirm in writing that the Hagia Sophia ticket is included.

More choices: our Istanbul tours, things to do in Sultanahmet, and private Istanbul days on our sister site, Get Istanbul Tours.

No prepayment needed: pay on the tour day.

Send us your dates on WhatsApp, and we will confirm a morning for the Hagia Sophia small-group tour that avoids the Friday midday prayer.

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