Istanbul › Places and landmarks
Blue Mosque
Sultanahmet Camii
The mosque of Sultan Ahmed I, with six minarets and some twenty thousand blue tiles from İznik inside.
Photo: kallerna, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Sultan Ahmed I had the mosque built from 1609 to 1616 by the architect Sedefkâr Mehmed Ağa, right across the square from the Hagia Sophia. Its domes and half-domes climb up like a cascade to the great central dome, and six minarets stand round it, as many as the Great Mosque of Mecca had then.
Inside, more than twenty thousand hand-painted tiles from İznik, with tulips, carnations and cypresses, give it its blue light and its English name. It is still a working mosque, closed to visitors at prayer times, and the Hippodrome lies along its west side. Visit it in 3D ›
More in Istanbul
Hagia SophiaJustinian’s great church of 537, with its dome 55 metres high: a church, then a mosque, a museum and a mosque again.
HippodromeThe long square where Byzantium held its chariot races, with an Egyptian obelisk and a bronze serpent column still on it.
Basilica CisternThe underground water store of Justinian, a forest of 336 columns standing in the water.
Topkapı PalaceThe palace of the Ottoman sultans for almost four hundred years, on the tip of the peninsula above the Bosphorus.
Grand BazaarOne of the oldest and largest covered markets in the world, some sixty streets and four thousand shops under one roof.
Spice BazaarThe L-shaped covered market by the New Mosque, full of spices, dried fruit, tea and Turkish delight.
New MosqueThe great mosque on the water at Eminönü, begun in 1597 and finished 68 years later.
Galata BridgeThe bridge over the Golden Horn from Eminönü to Karaköy, lined with anglers on top and fish restaurants below.
Sirkeci StationThe end of the line for the Orient Express from Paris, a station of 1890 by the sea.
Column of ConstantineThe column Constantine the Great set up in 330 for the founding of his new capital, held together by iron hoops.
SimitThe sesame bread ring sold from red carts on every corner, eaten for breakfast with a glass of tea.
FerriesThe white ferries that carry Istanbul across the Bosphorus between Europe and Asia, from the quays of Eminönü.