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ISTANBUL, TURKEY - JULY 24: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited the tomb of Ottoman Sultan Fatih Sultan Mehmet, conquerer of Istanbul, following the opening of Hagia Sophia as a mosque in Fatih district, Istanbul, on Friday (July 24).Erdogan along with Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahceli visited the tomb of Ottoman Sultan Fatih Sultan Mehmet, conquerer of Istanbul.Mehmed II, the Ottoman emperor who had the honor of conquering Istanbul and thus earning the title “conqueror”, was only 21 years old when he sent the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire to the dusty pages of history and leveled up a Turkish state into an empire that would rule regions in multiple continents for centuries to come.The conquest of Istanbul is the best-known victory of Mehmed the Conqueror, but in subsequent years he also ensured Ottoman control over Serbia, Morea, Trebizond (modern Trabzon) in the northern region of modern Turkey, as well as Bosnia, Albania, and some Anatolian (central Turkish) territories.Friday’s historic prayers in Turkey’s Hagia Sophia Mosque marked the first acts of worship there in 86 years.Thousands of people took part in the traditional Friday prayers both inside and outside the historic mosque in Istanbul, Turkey’s largest metropolis.Before the Friday prayers, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recited from the Quran inside the reopened mosque, choosing from both the Surah Al-Fatihah and the Surah Al-Baqarah.Later, four muezzins from the mosque’s four minarets recited the adhan, or call to the prayer, and the people started the Friday prayers.Besides being a working mosque, Hagia Sophia is also among Turkey’s top tourism destinations for domestic and foreign visitors alike.In 1985, during its time as a museum, Hagia Sophia was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List.(Footage by MUcahit TUretken/Lokman Akkaya/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)