Being a girl who likes to get her bearings, before ever visiting any sites, I like to investigate a new city a bit. My investigation led me immediately to the Blue Mosque, like a magnet!
I watched groups of head-scarf clad women walk around the grounds. I explored the Roman hippodrome adjacent. I wandered the park between Blue Mosque and Aya Sofia and generally got my bearings in the city.
Once confident that I knew were I was, and more importantly where my hotel was in relation to where I was, I proceeded to go back around for the details. So I hopped into line (after first trying to go in the wrong door) and joined with a crowd of people who had an English speaking guide. I will admit that I didn't officially join their group. I kinda just stood close enough to hear some tidbits, not wanting to be stuck with a long-winded tour guide for too much time. Have you ever done that? Every time I go on a proper tour it seems my group picks up at least one "joiner" so I didn't feel bad about popping around some of the groups.
The Blue Mosque, unlike Aya Sofia is a working mosque. So free access is granted tourists when it is not prayer time.
I've visited mosques before. But never one of such fame and grandeur. My first experience with a large mosque was in Amman, Jordan. It was indeed a large, imposing structure but not ornate as I'd dreamed a mosque ought to be. I learned that I would have to go elsewhere to meet those expectations as Jordan is a modest country without the riches of oil...
The blue mosque was everything I could have wished for. Beautiful, colorful stained glass adorned the windows. Millions of blue-glazed tiles decorated the walls (the color is what gives the mosque it's name). My favorite accents inside were the elaborate little candle holders of different designs. The mosque is now wired for electricity, but standing there I could imagine days gone by where afternoon prayers were practiced in the candle-lit domed room. The guttering flames dancing about, catching a gleam from a rosy bit of window glass or a blue wall tile, breathing life into the world around.
Interesting Tidbits about the Blue Mosque (from Wikipedia)
The Sultan Ahmed Mosque (Turkish: Sultanahmet Camii) is a historical mosque in Istanbul, the largest city in Turkey and the capital of the Ottoman Empire (from 1453 to 1923). The mosque is popularly known as the Blue Mosque for the blue tiles adorning the walls of its interior... It was built from 1609 to 1616, during the rule of Ahmed I.
-At its lower levels and at every pier, the interior of the mosque is lined with more than 20,000 handmade ceramic tiles, made at Iznik (the ancient Nicaea) in more than fifty different tulip designs. The tiles at lower levels are traditional in design, while at gallery level their design becomes flamboyant with representations of flowers, fruit and cypresses. More than 20,000 tiles were made under the supervision of the Iznik master potter Kasap Haci and Baris Efendi from Avanos (Cappadocia). The price to be paid for each tile was fixed by the sultan's decree, while tile prices in general increased over time. As a result, the quality of the tiles used in the building decreased gradually. Their colours have faded and changed (red turning into brown and green into blue, mottled whites) and the glazes have dulled. The tiles on the back balcony wall are recycled tiles from the harem in the Topkapı Palace, when it was damaged by fire in 1574.
I watched groups of head-scarf clad women walk around the grounds. I explored the Roman hippodrome adjacent. I wandered the park between Blue Mosque and Aya Sofia and generally got my bearings in the city.
Once confident that I knew were I was, and more importantly where my hotel was in relation to where I was, I proceeded to go back around for the details. So I hopped into line (after first trying to go in the wrong door) and joined with a crowd of people who had an English speaking guide. I will admit that I didn't officially join their group. I kinda just stood close enough to hear some tidbits, not wanting to be stuck with a long-winded tour guide for too much time. Have you ever done that? Every time I go on a proper tour it seems my group picks up at least one "joiner" so I didn't feel bad about popping around some of the groups.
The Blue Mosque, unlike Aya Sofia is a working mosque. So free access is granted tourists when it is not prayer time.
I've visited mosques before. But never one of such fame and grandeur. My first experience with a large mosque was in Amman, Jordan. It was indeed a large, imposing structure but not ornate as I'd dreamed a mosque ought to be. I learned that I would have to go elsewhere to meet those expectations as Jordan is a modest country without the riches of oil...
The blue mosque was everything I could have wished for. Beautiful, colorful stained glass adorned the windows. Millions of blue-glazed tiles decorated the walls (the color is what gives the mosque it's name). My favorite accents inside were the elaborate little candle holders of different designs. The mosque is now wired for electricity, but standing there I could imagine days gone by where afternoon prayers were practiced in the candle-lit domed room. The guttering flames dancing about, catching a gleam from a rosy bit of window glass or a blue wall tile, breathing life into the world around.
One of the gates leading out of the Blue Mosque... and directly to Aya Sofia.
Interesting Tidbits about the Blue Mosque (from Wikipedia)
The Sultan Ahmed Mosque (Turkish: Sultanahmet Camii) is a historical mosque in Istanbul, the largest city in Turkey and the capital of the Ottoman Empire (from 1453 to 1923). The mosque is popularly known as the Blue Mosque for the blue tiles adorning the walls of its interior... It was built from 1609 to 1616, during the rule of Ahmed I.
-At its lower levels and at every pier, the interior of the mosque is lined with more than 20,000 handmade ceramic tiles, made at Iznik (the ancient Nicaea) in more than fifty different tulip designs. The tiles at lower levels are traditional in design, while at gallery level their design becomes flamboyant with representations of flowers, fruit and cypresses. More than 20,000 tiles were made under the supervision of the Iznik master potter Kasap Haci and Baris Efendi from Avanos (Cappadocia). The price to be paid for each tile was fixed by the sultan's decree, while tile prices in general increased over time. As a result, the quality of the tiles used in the building decreased gradually. Their colours have faded and changed (red turning into brown and green into blue, mottled whites) and the glazes have dulled. The tiles on the back balcony wall are recycled tiles from the harem in the Topkapı Palace, when it was damaged by fire in 1574.
