We all marveled at the immense scope of the decorated interior of the 6th-century Hagia Sophia—once a cathedral, then a mosque, now a museum. This colossal building predated St. Peter's in Rome by a millennium.

A culturally fascinating mish-mash of partially restored Christian and Islamic imagery still adorned the walls, revealing the structure's changing roles over the centuries.

I ascended the stairs to the upper gallery for a better look and spent five minutes befuddled by a mosaic panel information sign.

"Does this make sense to you?" I asked another tour member. "How could Alexandros have lived from 1912 to 9131?"

"I think those are parentheses," came the polite reply. "Perhaps his work took from 912 to 913 to complete."

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