Editing Hagia Sophia (section)

===Buttresses===
Numerous [[buttress]]es have been added throughout the centuries. The [[flying buttress]]es to the west of the building, although thought to have been constructed by the Crusaders upon their visit to Constantinople, were actually built during the Byzantine era. This shows that the Romans had prior knowledge of flying buttresses, which can also be seen at in Greece, at the [[Arch of Galerius and Rotunda|Rotunda of Galerius]] in [[Thessaloniki]], at the monastery of [[Hosios Loukas]] in [[Boeotia]], and in Italy at the octagonal basilica of [[Basilica of San Vitale|San Vitale]] in [[Ravenna]].<ref name="Mainstone-1988" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Machabee |first=Stephanie |date=2022-04-01 |title=Religion and Contested Cultural Heritage: The Rotunda and Hagia Sophia as Church, Mosque, and Museum |url=https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/gsas_dissertations/630/ |journal=Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations}}</ref> Other buttresses were constructed during the Ottoman times under the guidance of the architect [[Mimar Sinan|Sinan]]. A total of 24 buttresses were added.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://ayasofyamuzesi.gov.tr/en/ext-buttresses |title=Buttresses {{!}} Hagia Sophia Museum |website=ayasofyamuzesi.gov.tr |publisher=Directorate of Hagia Sophia Museum |access-date=18 April 2017 |archive-date=28 August 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190828112435/https://ayasofyamuzesi.gov.tr/en/ext-buttresses |url-status=dead}}</ref>