KPDS 2009-2 Soru=86

As emphasized in the passage, the design of the church of Saint Sophia in İstanbul ensured that ----.

The finest example of Byzantine architecture is the
church of Saint Sophia (Holy Wisdom) in İstanbul,
constructed by the emperor Justinian in the sixth
century. Evidently, its structural design was
something altogether new in the history of
architecture. The central feature of the design was
the application of the dome principle to a building of
square shape. The church was designed in the form
of a cross, with a magnificent dome over its central
square. The main problem for the architects was how
to fit the circumference of the dome to the square
area it was supposed to cover. The solution was to
have four great arches spring from pillars at the four
corners of the square. The rim of the dome was then
made to rest on the keystones of the arches, with the
curved triangular spaces between the arches filled
with masonry. The result was an architectural
framework of marvellous strength, which at the same
time made possible a style of imposing grandeur and
delicacy. The dome itself has a diametre of 107 feet
and rises to a height of nearly 180 feet from the floor.
So many windows are placed around its rim that the
dome appears to have no support at all but to be
suspended in midair.