Turkey 🇹🇷, Istanbul, Blue Mosque

The Blue Mosque in Istanbul, or Sultan Ahmet Mosque, is the most significant religious building in the city. The massive temple with 5 main and 8 auxiliary round domes and 6 sharp needles of minarets got its name because of the internal lining with ceramic tiles with rich blue patterns. The Blue Mosque, built at the beginning of the XVII century, is still in operation. The silver-gray complex on the shore of the Bosphorus, surrounded by gardens, simultaneously accommodates up to 10,000 believers. Tourists, subject to certain rules, are also allowed there at a strictly allotted time.

The massiveness of the squat domes advancing on each other is softened by the points of the minarets pointing upwards. The project was clearly influenced by Hagia Sophia and Islamic architecture, in particular the Suleymaniye Mosque, built half a century earlier in the time of Suleiman the Magnificent.