{
  "title": "Hagia Sophia visiting hours for tourists: official rules and today's status",
  "canonical": "https://nomadistanbul.com/kb/hagia-sophia-open-now/",
  "dataUrl": "https://nomadistanbul.com/data/hagia-sophia-hours.json",
  "license": "CC BY 4.0 — attribution to Nomad Istanbul required.",
  "lastChecked": "2026-09-24",
  "timezone": "Europe/Istanbul",
  "source": {
    "name": "Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Hagia Sophia visitor page (muze.gen.tr)",
    "url": "https://muze.gen.tr/muze-detay/ayasofya"
  },
  "seasons": [
    {
      "name": "summer",
      "from": "04-01",
      "to": "09-30",
      "opens": "08:00",
      "closes": "19:30",
      "lastTicket": "19:00"
    },
    {
      "name": "winter",
      "from": "10-01",
      "to": "03-31",
      "opens": "09:00",
      "closes": "19:30",
      "lastTicket": "19:00"
    }
  ],
  "closures": [
    {
      "day": "Friday",
      "from": "12:00",
      "to": "14:00",
      "reason": "Friday congregational prayer. The visiting area is closed to tourists."
    }
  ],
  "dailyPrayers": "The Ministry page lists no closure of the tourist gallery for the five daily prayers. Tourists use a separate entrance and route to the upper gallery; the ground-floor prayer hall is for worshippers only.",
  "fee": {
    "amount": 25,
    "currency": "EUR",
    "under8": "free with passport or ID",
    "museumPass": "not valid"
  },
  "entrance": "Tourist gate and ticket booth across from the Fountain of Sultan Ahmed III, near the Imperial Gate of Topkapı Palace.",
  "prayerTimesMethod": "Today's prayer times on the page are calculated in your browser with the Diyanet (Turkey) method for Sultanahmet. On 24 September 2026 they matched Diyanet's published Istanbul times to within two minutes.",
  "caveats": [
    "Some guides say the gallery pauses for about 30 minutes at every daily prayer, or that the Friday closure runs to 14:30. The official Ministry page says neither; we follow the official page and will update if that changes.",
    "Eid mornings and state ceremonies can close the building at short notice."
  ]
}