Photographs of the Sultan Ahmet (Blue) Mosque
Click on an image to see the full picture
In 1606, Sultan Ahmet wanted to build a mosque bigger, more majestic and more beautiful
than the Saint Sophia Church (the Suleymaniye mosque is not as big).
The Sultanahmet Mosque (Blue Mosque) is one of only two mosques in Turkey with 6 minarets (four on the
mosque and two on the corners of the enclosed courtyard). The other one is the Sabanci Mosque in Adana.
The views of the mosque from the gardens between Aya Sophia and the mosque shows the six minarets, but the
view from the courtyard of the domed sadirvan (ablutions fountain) shows the cascade of domes of the roof
of the mosque. In this photograph, the domes are frosted with snow.
The Sultan Ahmet Mosque is called the Blue Mosque because of its magnificent interior decoration of
more than 20,000 handmade blue Iznik tiles and also glass-work with the same colour.
