With a rich history dating back thousands of years, Istanbul is chock-full of architectural marvels. One such wonder is the Blue Mosque, or the Sultan Ahmed Mosque as it is known to locals. The Blue Mosque is a striking memento of Istanbul’s nearly 500-year stint as the imperial capital of the Ottoman Empire, making it an architectural destination as well as a house of worship. Named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985, the building is one of Istanbul’s most prominent tourist attractions, and for good reason. From the outside, the structure’s six minarets and hulking dome are impressive and imposing. Once inside, the detailed tile work, stained glass, and painted motifs combine for a vivid and entirely unique environment—and yes, a very blue one too.
Below, we detail everything you need to know about the Blue Mosque, including its history, detailed design, and how you can stop by to get a look at it yourself.
What is the Blue Mosque?
Also known as the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, the Blue Mosque is an over 400-year-old mosque in Istanbul. Considered one of the most sacred places on earth, among places like the Taj Mahal, Vatican City, and Mount Sinai, the mosque is both spiritually powerful and visually stunning. Many non-Muslim tourists make their way to the Blue Mosque each year, much in the way stunning churches in Europe attract non-Christians too. In Turkish, the building is called the Sultanahmet Camii—a direct translation of “Sultan Ahmed Mosque.”
Where is the Blue Mosque?
The landmark is located in Istanbul, Turkey, in the district known as Sultanahmet District. The Blue Mosque’s location is near a number of other notable tourist sites in the city from a range of periods, including the Ancient Greek Serpent Column, the 19th-century German Fountain, and the Obelisk of Theodosius, which was brought to this location in AD 390.
Blue Mosque history
Who built the Blue Mosque?
The Blue Mosque was built by Sultan Ahmet I, the Ottoman Empire’s sultan between 1603 and 1617. War bounty was typically used to fund large-scale projects like this, but the Sultan chose to use treasury funds to finance the building, since the Ottomans had not recently claimed victory in a war. This decision made the construction of the building highly controversial from its outset.
Why was the Blue Mosque built?
“Today, every tall building or skyscraper in the world competes with every other tall edifice, from the Empire State Building in New York to the Burj Khalifa in Dubai,” writes scholar Renata Holod in Mosques: Splendors of Islam, a book that presents a cornucopia of images and information on mosques across the world. “So, too, every dome built within the Mediterranean and West/South Asia in the pre-modern era appears to have competed with every other dome of its time and those preceding it.”
