Two of Istanbul‘s most significant monuments, the Blue Mosque and Haghia Sophia, face each other across a leafy square, informally known as Sultanahmet Square (Sultanahmet Meydanı), next to the Hippodrome of Byzantium.
Blue Mosque is an important and popular tourism destination among tourists. It’s one of the most popular tourist attractions in Istanbul, the greatest and the most popular city in Turkey when it comes to the tourism.
The Blue Mosque, which takes its name from the mainly blue Iznik tilework decorating its interior, is one of the most famous religious buildings in the world. The walls all along the galeries are covered with 21 thousand tiles which was made in 17c in Iznik with many flower motifs in domitant blue clour.Shafts of sunlight pour through the 260 stainedglass windows, highlighting the tiles.
Serene at any time, it is at its most magical when floodlit at night, its minarets circled by keening seagulls. The Blue Mosque was built as part of complex building hospital,library,medreses etc…
Sultan Ahmet I commissioned the mosque during a period of declining Ottoman fortunes, and it was built between 1609-1616 and it’s capacity is about 10,000 of people. The architect was the one of the apprenties of Great Sinan named Sedefkar Mehmet Aga to rival the Aya Sofya(Hagia Sophia) and show the superiority of Islam.
The splendour of the plans provoked great hostility at the time, because a mosque with six minarets was considered a sacrilegious attempt to rival the architecture of Mecca.