Hagia Sophia Tickets, Hours, and Dress Code 2026

Hagia Sophia is free to enter on the ground floor in 2026, but the upper gallery now needs a separate ticket of around 25 euros, and the building closes to tourists during the five daily prayers. The dome is under restoration, so part of the interior is screened by scaffolding. Plan around all three things and the visit is still one of the best in the city.

Here's what we tell friends before they go.

Do you need a ticket for Hagia Sophia?

The ground floor is free for everyone in 2026 because Hagia Sophia is an active mosque again. The upper gallery, where the Byzantine mosaics are, needs a separate ticket of around 25 euros, sold at the entrance and online through the official Ayasofya site. Anyone selling a "skip the line" pass on the street is running a scam.

The ground floor has no fast-track option. You queue or you arrive early enough that there's no queue. The 25-euro gallery ticket is the only paid part, and it's worth it for the Deesis mosaic and the Empress Zoe panel, both upstairs. If your time is short, do the gallery and skip lingering on the ground floor.

What are the opening hours?

The ground floor opens to visitors at 9:00 and stays open through the day, but it closes to tourism during each of the five daily prayers, which shift through the year with the sun. Friday midday is the longest closure. The official Ayasofya schedule posts the daily prayer times, and they're worth checking the night before.

The practical move is a weekday morning, Tuesday or Wednesday, at the gates for 8:50. You'll walk in with twenty other people instead of waiting behind hundreds at 11:00. By early afternoon the queue wraps around the building, and you lose an hour standing in the sun in Sultanahmet Meydanı for nothing.

What's the dome restoration like in 2026?

The main dome is under restoration, so scaffolding covers a section of the interior and some of the overhead view is blocked. The Deesis mosaic and the imperial gallery upstairs are unaffected, which is another reason the 25-euro gallery ticket earns its cost while the ground floor is partly screened.

It's still worth going. Stand directly under the center of the dome and turn slowly through a full circle to read the proportions, even with the scaffolding up. The marble floor under your feet is original Byzantine, worn smooth over 1500 years, and the corner columns were brought from the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus. None of this is signposted.

What's the dress code?

Hagia Sophia is a working mosque, so knees and shoulders stay covered for everyone, and women cover their hair. Scarves are loaned free at the entrance if you don't have one. Shoes come off at the door, so wear socks and slip-ons rather than laced boots, and use the bag racks inside for your shoes.

The same rule holds across the square at Sultanahmet Camii, the Blue Mosque, which is also free and also worth your time. Most people do the two together. Start with Hagia Sophia while it's quiet, then walk across.

Forty-five minutes covers the ground floor, ninety if you add the gallery. Don't try to rush it in fifteen because a tour bus is idling.

Go first thing, before the prayer closures stack up against the afternoon queue.