There are many wonders and incredible architectural monuments in Istanbul, and today we will visit the main ones. In the last post, I wrote about the beauty and history of the Galata Tower, but today I am going to the very center of Istanbul, namely the center where all the magnificent mosques are located. In Istanbul, on its European part there is a bay or gulf (I don't know how to call it correctly), which is called the Golden Horn. It divides the European part of Istanbul into two parts. The old city and the shopping center. The Galata Tower is located in the shopping center, but all the other cool monuments, which are some of the most important tourist attractions, are here. Tourists flock to them like bees to flowers. To see this part of the city, we had to cross the legendary Golden Horn this time. Our apartment was in the shopping part of the city, and therefore it was easy enough to get to the tower, but now the real journey began.
In order to cross the river, we decided to take the metro, or rather a train 🤔. It looked like something in between, because it looked like a metro, but it ran outside, not underground. So after visiting the main tourist street of Istanbul, we started going down the street. After a few minutes of going down, we came out onto the Golden Horn, where there was a port and also on the side of the bridges. From this side of the river, we could see majestic mosques on the other bank, as if on some distant land. Blurred by the distance, they looked at us mysteriously. These several towers looked very magical and majestic, because they are so large, and added to the fabulousness of the landscape. Standing on the bank, we looked at the other bank and took photos, but after a few minutes we realized that we needed to head to our destination as quickly as possible.
We understood that some people were getting to the other shore by ship. There was a lot of commotion at the port near the departure point. But we didn't even think for a second about taking this option, because my sister and mother were seasick (and it's probably more expensive). So we left the port, went up the stairs to the street where vehicles go, and right in front of us was a metro stop. It was right next to the bridge over which the metro crossed. Only these trains were allowed on this bridge. When we got to the stop, we bought tickets, scanned them, and went onto the platform. The train arrived, we went inside, and now the main thing was not to miss our stop. But it seems that it was called the same as the attraction itself, so it wasn't difficult.
Riding this "sub-metro" was really interesting. The streets of Istanbul are interesting at first glance. Houses, active life around. Cafes with various interesting things, and skillful waiters. Sellers who try to lure and sell you for every penny. Tourists who take pictures of every corner, and try not to fall for all the bait, although they rarely succeed 😉. Seagulls who grab every possible piece of bread, and fly through the streets adding to the atmosphere. And of course, the infrastructure. Thematic houses, beautiful mosques, roads filled with motorcycles, scooters, cars, etc. Palm trees that give the city greenery and orientalism.
And so we arrived. Our stop was the Sultan Ahmet Mosque! This majestic beauty is also known as the Blue Mosque, and was designed by the architect Sedefkar Mehmet Aga, who was a student of the very famous architect Sinan. It was built by order of Ahmet I, and was built from 1609 to 1616, in whose name this mosque was created. Ahmet I is known not only for the construction of this mosque, but also for ending the tradition of fratricide after ascending the throne.
The most interesting thing is that this mosque was built to overshadow the Hagia Sophia, which was built opposite in the 500s. And as you can hear from the name, it is a church that was created by Christians. And I think everyone knows what hatred there was and is between Christians and Muslims. And so the tension was even stronger in those days. Because of that, I still don't understand how it wasn't demolished. Christians were called "infidels", and they thought they needed to be destroyed. Of course, I don't think that Christians were very friendly, and I would say that in some situations they were much more cruel than the Ottomans, but still the hatred was strong and mutual.
The Blue Mosque got its name from İznik çinisi - tiles, which are completely lined from the middle. When tiling the mosque, more than 20,000 tiles were used. As we approached, we admired its size. This is the only mosque in Turkey with 6 minarets. At that time, it was very bold to make a mosque with 6 minarets, because the Kaaba in Mecca, the main shrine of Islam (a cube-shaped structure in the center of the Al-Haram mosque in Mecca), had the same number of minarets. At that time, Mecca was under the control of the Ottoman Empire. This caused discontent among the Muslim world, because it was considered sacrilege: how is it - some other mosque was equated with the sacred Mecca?! Therefore, due to strong criticism from the people, Sultan Ahmed ordered the construction of another minaret in Mecca in order to avoid even more scandals. From then on, there were 7 minarets in the Kaaba, but later more were added, and now there are 9 of them.
As we got closer, we began to examine the details. In front of us rose a wide stone staircase, an arched entrance carved from beautiful snow-white marble. It had a large Arabic inscription. By the way, it was very strange for me to learn that earlier in Turkey, or rather in the Ottoman Empire, there was a completely different language. While watching the series The Magnificent Century, I noticed this detail that the letters were in a completely different language from the current one. After all, I was very interested in seeing how they wrote in this language in ancient times. But then my surprise came. Now they use the Latin alphabet here, and all the temples are signed with Arabic hieroglyphs. I know that before there was Ottoman-Arabic, and these inscriptions look very majestic. But it's a bit strange, what made you change your language? After we took a photo of the entrance, we went in.
A large square appeared before us, with beautiful columns, red paintings on the walls, and in the middle, under the open sky, stood a shadirvan — a special fountain-pool. It is intended for washing before prayer. People approach it to symbolically cleanse themselves with water.
I took a photo of this beautiful moment when a person was standing near the shadirvan, and taking the angle in the middle, it really turned out to be a perfectly successful shot.
Inside the shadirvan were beautiful patterns and golden details.
There were also many beautiful arches and columns around the edges of the square. On the different levels of the mosque's roof, rising, there were a bunch of domes, a beautiful sky color. On the roof were beautiful domed towers, each with a golden top. These decorations add a real touch of sparkle. On the three main domes there were more than twenty small windows, which added even more design to the towers.
The entire tower is made of perfectly clean white stone. The white blocks have stood perfectly on top of each other, laid out with high quality, for over 400 years! The architect really tried his best, and his studies with the famous Sinan were beneficial.
Considering all these architectural details, the inscriptions about Allah in a complex but beautifully winding Arabic language, the structure, and the shape of this mosque, it can be described in two words - elegance, and majesty. The sun brightly illuminated the mosque, adding to the fantasticness. The blue color was emphasized by this strong light at sunset. What an unearthly blue 😍.
The Blue Mosque is currently under restoration, its left minaret is now shrouded in workers, but this does not interfere with the beauty.
After considering the beauty and uniqueness of the entire Blue Mosque, we were faced with a choice. The question was: should we go inside or not? To be honest, at that time, I knew absolutely nothing about the Blue Mosque. Therefore, I had no idea what it looked like inside, so I thought that it was probably nothing special, etc. Moreover, it was already getting dark, and in order to go inside, from what I know, you need to wear a headscarf if you are not covered. Therefore, we decided not to go, and save time for other attractions. But if only I knew what would be inside. Advice: if you are in Istanbul, do not miss this opportunity! Outside this mosque is magnificent, but inside it is incredible. You can not miss it! I also read that the walls there are decorated with calligraphy with words from the Quran and the names of the first caliphs. So I really hope that someday we will make another visit to Istanbul and see this mosque again, but also inside. And did you know that inside this huge beauty can accommodate over 10,000 people.
Also, since the Blue Mosque is the greatest creation of Ottoman architecture, it is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. Next to the mosque is the mausoleum of Sultan Ahmed I, in which he is buried. But we did not go there. So, leaving the courtyard, we went to the next magnificent monuments.
I will write about the next attraction and our exploration of the city in my next post.
Bye bye everyone! 🕌🕋☪️🌴