The Blue Mosque

Hello friends, this is another blog for you all. Before starting, I would like to wish everyone a happy and blessed Diwali for the year.

Today, we are going to talk about the Blue Mosque, in Istanbul.

Built during the rule of the Ottoman Empire, by Ahmet 1 who decided to construct a big mosque in Istanbul to reassert Ottoman power, was to be the first imperial mosque for more than forty years in his time.

Now, you might be thinking why it is called the Blue Mosque. Well, it is because of 2 major reasons, firstly being made up of blue iznik tiles which we will talk about in some paragraphs. The second reason being, that many years ago, number of sailors who sailed by the Marmara Sea saw the blue colours reflected in the mosque.

Apart from its religious importance, it is also famous for its amazing and complex architecture, and we are going to talk about when it was built, who constructed it and what makes it stand out from other shrines by its beauty.

The Blue Mosque, also known as the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, had one main dome, six minarets and eight secondary domes. The interior of the mosque in the lower parts is lined with more than 20,000 handmade iznik style ceramic tiles with 50+ patterns of tulip designs.

The upper level of the interior part of the mosque are decorated by blue paint. More than 200 stained glass windows with intricate designs used to admit natural light, and in addition to the beautiful chandeliers installed in recent times. The decorations include verses from the Qur’an, many of them made by Seyyid Kasim Gubari, regarded as the best calligrapher of his times. The floors are covered with maps and there are also many lamps within the mosque which were once decorated by gold and gems. The place gets more than 4 million to 5 million visitors a year.

So, this was all about the beauty and architecture of the Blue Mosque. Thank you!

Hope you liked the blog! Credits

Hitendra for the idea of the blog.

The official website of the Blue Mosque for information.