Data from Turkey’s Culture and Tourism Ministry ranks Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia as the country’s second-most-visited monument this year, at a time when Turkish nationalists seek to turn this great monument of Christianity into a mosque.
Topkapı Palace is Turkey most-visited monument, attracting 796,588 visitors, or 20% of the tourists to visit the country. In 2013, 4.2 million tourists visited Topkapi Palace.
The Hagia Sophia was built 1449 years ago, and drew 576,326 visitors in the year to March, and 3,275,337 visitors last year.
The Mevlana Museum in Konya ranked third on the list with 303,090 visitors. Fourth place is the foundation of the ancient city at Ephesus, Denizli Hierapolis, dated at 6,000 B.C, with 205.389 visitors.