Didn't even realize updates were a feature on planet Minecraft lol so this is my first "official" update, whoops. I had been posting progress updates on this map infrequently in the comment section since this page went live, so if you want to see my previous progress look there.

Since my last update I have gained access to the absolutely invaluable Hagia Sophia in Context: An Archaeological Re-examination of the Cathedral of Byzantine Constantinople by Drs. Ken Dark and Jan Kostenec. This book was integral for all the work I have done in the interim since my last update. Their detailed work on the subsidiary structures of the Hagia Sophia has allowed me to undertake accurate reconstructions of the Great baptistery, the Hypogeum, the antechamber of St. Michael at the southwest vestibule, and the Thomiates hall and it's undercroft; pictures of which can be found in the updated images tab. Their work also spurred me on to undertake major reconstructions of the large sekreton, the small baptistery and it's vestibule, the private imperial chapel in the southwest buttress, the long room over the atrium, the chapel of the Holy well, the Horologion, and all the buttresses and ramps. All of these are a work in progress but most of the structures of the patriarchal palace that surround the southwest vestibule are near completion.

In the atrium I finished the gardens and the flying buttresses of the western facade. I had previously decided to remove these buttresses as I was under the mistaken impression that they dated from the era of the Latin occupation of Constantinople, as many previous works of scholarship had suggested, but thanks to the work of Drs. Dark and Kostenec, it came to my attention that these buttresses actually most likely date from the middle Byzantine period, around the 10th century. As such, I have included them in this build as it is meant to convey the cathedral as it was in the late 12th century.

At the east end of the cathedral, I have begun reconstructions of the south-east treasury attached to the chapel of the holy well/south-east vestibule, the north-east vestibule, and the long-lost passage and chapel of St. Nicholas. This is just in it's beginning stages though and I am currently fleshing out the proportions of it's ground plan.

The greatest additions that have taken place since the last update are the aforementioned Thomiates hall and undercroft, great baptistery and hypogeum, and portions of the exterior of the dome and great western window above the galleries. What surprised me the most in Dark & Kostenec's work was their conclusion that the great baptistery was almost certainly a rectilinear, basilica style structure. I had been under the impression that it would have been a centrally planned rotunda-like structure, similar to the Orthodox baptistery at Ravenna, however I was completely wrong. The fragmentary remains Dark and Kostenec brought to light almost indisputably prove that the great baptistery was a rectilinear structure, more akin to the baptistery of the church of Panagia Ekatontapiliani on Paros or the baptistery of the episcopal complex of Kourion on Cyprus.

I have also made some progress in the field of lighting, my least favorite part of the building process besides exterior & roof stuff. I've gotten the south-west vestibule, small baptistery, chapel of the holy well, and the Thomiates hall completely illuminated.

As for the general focus of this project, I've taken the advice of marvelfannumber2 (check out his page and builds if you haven't already) and narrowed down the temporal focus of my build. For a while, as I had previously stated in the build description, I had decided to incorporate features of the Hagia Sophia from a myriad of discordant periods of Byzantine history into the build, in order to create a holistic presentation of the entire history of the structure. However, as time went on I realized how silly and unachievable of an idea this was, and how much it spoiled the historical cohesion of the build. As such, I have decided to focus the current iteration of the build on reconstructing the Hagia Sophia as it would have been in the late 12th century, right around the time of St. Anthony of Novgorod's visit. In the future, in order to incorporate elements of the build I have already build that do not date from this period and present a historically accurate view of the cathedral as it was throughout it's history, I hope to use this current build as a springboard for creating five additional maps: Hagia Sophia in the Justinianic era, the Latin era, the Palaiologian era, the early Ottoman era, and the modern era. This will allow me to present all the major historical developments in the Hagia Sophia in an accurate and cohesive manner. Long-term I also hope to enhance these builds with readable Minecraft books placed throughout the structure that will explain the historic & liturgical significance of various elements of the cathedral. For example, explaining the liturgical rituals that took place at the ambo, relating the history & liturgical significance of the Hypogeum & great baptistery, etc. Long-term I also hope to integrate this build into a wider reconstruction of the imperial district of Constantinople.

However, just to cover all my bases so that I don't end up disappointing anyone, all the above prospective builds & additions are tentative, and I could certainly end up not being able to get to a lot of them. Reconstructions like this are extremely time consuming and tedious in nature, and I've already got my hands full with just the 12th century build. I don't want to damage my irl spiritual or domestic life by getting too obsessed with them. Currently I'm already spending 4+ hours building on days when I work on the build, and I could easily see that getting out of hand, if it isn't already lol.

Sorry for not posting for a while. I like to only post/update when I have something substantial to show you guys.

God Bless,

Randy

P.S. Marvelfannumber2 and 76Trombones also had questions about how I decided the scaling of the structure, and to be quite honest I'm pretty much playing it by ear with regards to that. With scaling at the beginning of the build I generally try to "feel out" what 1:1 would look like from the perspective of the player and have never really based my scaling off of 1 block= one meter, as when I've tried that it often results in a build that just looks too visually constrained, not allowing for enough detail and doesn't really feel 1:1 perspective-wise in my opinion. I'm sure I'm Mathematically wrong here but generally what I did for scaling was; for example, start by looking at a bunch of irl photos of people standing in the Hagia Sophia next to an interior column, gauge their height in relation to the column, compare that to the 2-block height of the player in Minecraft, and determine the height & scale of the column in Minecraft accordingly. The scale of everything from then onwards was scaled in direct relation to that original determination to maintain absolute cohesion.