The Blue Mosque, which is officially called the Sultanahmet Camii (the Sultan Ahmet Mosque), is perhaps the most famous site in Istanbul, Turkey, and it is definitely amongst its finest postcard images. It rises up over the Old City and overlooks the Sea of Marmara and Bosphorous Straight.
The mosque is named after Sultan Ahmet I who commissioned its construction in 1609. It was designed by Mehmet Aga, and after 7 years construction was finished. It is made up of a bunch of domes, flanked by 6 minarets. There is one massive central dome that extends about 33 meters, or 100 feet, with many smaller dome structures around it They all sit atop four huge pillars which each measure 4.5 meters (15 feet) thick. These foundational pillars are referred to as the "elephant's foot" pillars.
The interior of the building is spectacular, with the inside of all the domes and arches are covered in beautiful Islamic calligraphy. Not just that, but the walls of the interior are tiled with 20000 blue Iznik tiles. The name "Blue Mosque" comes from these tiles, which solves one of the mysteries about the mosque that most travellers hold. The interior also features a perimeter of 260 stained glass windows, whose colored sunlight blends with the color of the blue tiles to create sheer brilliance These are not the original stained glass windows though, since the old ones were destroyed in an earthquake.
The Blue Mosque caused some controversy when it was first built. Before that time, the only mosque on the planet with six minarets had been a mosque in Mecca, so by building a six minaret mosque the Sultan had sent the message that Istanbul was on par with Mecca. He brilliantly solved the problem by having an extra minaret added to the mosque in Mecca, allowing it to retain its image of supremacy. This calmed religious fervor.
