Turkey's Minister of Culture says restoration workers have uncovered a well-preserved mosaic face of an angel long-hidden at the former Byzantine cathedral of Haghia Sophia in Istanbul.
The mosaics were plastered over according to Muslim custom that prohibits the representation of humans. |
The seraphim figure is one of two located on the side of a dome. The figures had been covered up along with the building's other Christian mosaics shortly after Constantinople - the former name for Istanbul - fell to the Ottomans in 1453. At that time, the cathedral was turned into a mosque.
The mosaics were plastered over according to Muslim custom that prohibits the representation of humans.
Some of the mosaics were revealed when the domed complex was turned into a museum in 1935, but the seraphim remained largely hidden.