Turkey Guide
İstanbul
Sultanahmet Camii: the Blue Mosque
Address: Sultanahmet
On the southeastern side of the Hippodrome is the Sultanahmet Camii, or Blue Mosque. Its instantly recognizable six minarets, imposing bulk and prominent position on the İstanbul skyline combine to make it one of the most famous and visited monuments in the city. Despite this, many architectural historians are scathing about the Blue Mosque's aesthetic merit.
Before construction began, in 1609, objections were raised to the plan of a six-minareted mosque. It was said to be unholy to rival the six minarets of the mosque at Mecca, and perhaps more pertinently it would be a great drain on state revenues. The true cause of the objections, however, probably had more to do with the need to destroy several palaces belonging to imperial ministers to make way for construction.
From the outside, the building is undeniably impressive, particularly on the all-important approach from Topkapı Palace. Above the level of the courtyard the mosque is a mass of shallow domes and domed turrets, hardly broken by a single straight line. The courtyard, best approached from the attractive and graceful west portal, is surrounded by a portico of thirty small domes and has the same dimensions as the mosque itself.
You can enter through the courtyard, despite signs in English and German asking visitors to use the side entrance facing Aya Sofya. Lone tourists, as opposed to groups, will not create ill-will by entering here as long as they are suitably covered (limbs for men and women, heads for women) and do not intrude on worshippers. At the side entrance, you will invariably encounter large crowds.
Inside, four "elephant foot" pillars (so called because of their size) of five metres in diameter impose their disproportionate dimensions on the interior, appearing squashed against the outer walls and obscuring parts of the building from every angle. But it's the predominantly blue colour of the internal decoration that is the biggest draw, from which the name "Blue Mosque" is derived. The tiles – over twenty thousand of them – constituted such a tall order that the İznik kilns were practically exhausted. Still in evidence are the clear bright colours of the best period of İznik ware, including flower and tree panels as well as more abstract designs.