Istanbul is also known as City Of Mosques.Istanbul is the capital city of Ottoman Empire sine 1453.There are almost 3000 mosques.
Sultanahmet (The Blue Mosque)
This 17th-century mosque, facing Hagia Sophia, is famous for its beautiful blue tile work ornamenting its interior walls. Its six slim minarets distinguish it from other mosques, which normally have two or four minarets.
It was built from 1609 to 1616, during the rule of Ahmed I. Like many other mosques, it also houses the tomb of the founder, a madrasah and a hospice. While still used as a mosque, Sultanahmet is one of the most popular, and important, tourist attractions in Istanbul.
Sultanahmet is considered to be the last great mosque of the Ottoman classical period, as it is the culmination of two centuries of both Ottoman mosque and Byzantine church development. It incorporates some Byzantine elements of Hagia Sophia along with traditional Islamic architecture.
Besides being tourist attraction, it's also a active mosque, so it's closed to non worshippers for a half hour or so during the five daily prayers.
Best way to see great architecture of the Blue Mosque is to approach it from the Hippodrome. (West side of the mosque) As if you are non-Muslim visitor, you also have to use same direction to enter the Mosque.
Mosques traditionally have one, two or four minarets. That’s what makes the Blue Mosque unique as it boasts six minarets. It’s rumored that this was a misunderstanding as the Sultan had instructed his architect to make gold (altin) minarets which his architect understood as six (alti) minarets.
The Harem Mosque in Mecca which is the holiest in the world also has six minarets which caused controversy to the extent that Sultan Ahmet I had to send his architect to Mecca to add a seventh minaret to the Haram Mosque.
Although the main west entrance is far grander than the north entrance, non-worshippers are asked to use the north entrance to keep the mosque’s sacredness intact.
The Blue Mosque’s interior is lit with two hundred and sixty windows which were once filled with stained glass of the seventeenth century. Unfortunately they have been lost and replaced with replicas far more inferior.
The mosque’s interior has 20,000 blue tiles that line its high ceiling. The oldest of these tiles feature flowers, trees and abstract patterns that make them fine examples of sixteenth century Iznik design.
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