Pope heads to Istanbul in symbolic visit

Mehmet Gormez (R), Turkey's president of Religious Affairs, hands Pope Francis headphones during a joint press conference at the Religious Affairs Presidency building in Ankara, Turkey.- AFP

ISTANBUL(AFP) - Pope Francis on Saturday heads to Istanbul for the second leg of his first trip to Turkey, in a richly-symbolic visit set to include a tour of a mosque and a meeting with the Orthodox ecumenical patriarch.

He will begin his visit with a tour of Hagia Sophia, the great Byzantine church that was turned into a mosque after the conquest of Constantinople but then became a secular museum for all in modern day Turkey.