Welcome back to another episode of Five Minutes in Church History. On this episode, we are on location,

and we are in the modern city of Istanbul, but the ancient city of Constantinople. And we're going

back to around 5.30. And right here in the center of the old

city was the hippodrome. It was a massive complex, like Rome's Circus Maximus, and we'd have

the laps around the track and there would be chariot races. Well, in 530, there was a massive riot that

broke out there. It was called the Niki riots.

Of course, Niki or Nike was the Greek god of victory. And these riots had to do with Justinian.

He was overtaxing the people, and they had had enough. It was a horrible riot. Half of the city

ended up getting destroyed tens of thousands of people lost their lives. It was a horrible riot. Half of the city ended up getting destroyed. Tens of thousands of people lost their lives. It was just a sad, tragic moment here in history.

Out of that, Justinian decided he would rebuild the city and he would demonstrate his power. One of the things he built was the Hagia Sophia,

a massive church.

It would have been the biggest church at its time.

On its place, of course, were temples before that.

He built this church.

It took him five years to build from 532 to 537.

There was one emperor, there were two architects, and there were tens of

thousands of workers. And Justinian had ordered that material be brought from all over the empire

to be built. So let's talk about five things about the Hagia Sophia. The first, I already

mentioned to you, it took five years to build.

And we love the number five here at five minutes in church history. Secondly, let's talk about the

dome. The building was actually a square building with a dome put on top. And 30 years after its

construction, there was an earthquake here in the city, and that dome collapsed.

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