A Day Full of Old City Istanbul Tourism: Stop 1: the Blue Mosque

The interior of the Blue Mosque is huge. And blue.

Today was the day for maximum tourism in the area in the historic core of the Istanbul Old City. Four stops in all, none of which were just a quick stop to snap my instagram-worthy photo followed by moving on. Well, except maybe the first stop: the Blue Mosque.

I hired a private guide (from the carpet merchant next to my hotel) (don't ask, it worked) to learn some history and to skip, or at least minimize my time in, the long lines at the various sights.

The line to get into the Blue Mosque was long, but not nearly as bad as Saturday.

The interior was huge. SuperDome huge. And ornate. And blue.

It was built in the 1700's -- which makes it "new construction" for this part of the city -- at the direction of Sultan Ahmet who had correctly deduced that he was somewhat mediocre of a sultan (the king in Ottoman Turkey) so that he had to build something magnificent to have any sort of legacy.

So this is what they came up with.

The place was packed, as the long line would indicate. Unlike the other places I visited today, this is not one that dictates a long linger. You stand in line. You walk in. You absorb the enormity and the beauty of the physical environment inside. What is impressive is the totality, rather than any specific facet of the building. This is not like a Gothic Cathedral elsewhere in Europe with an overwhelming amount of religious art. You walk in, gasp in awe, and move on to the next tourism stop.

But before I move on, I will point out that this mosque has six minarets. Minarets are the tall towers beside mosques from which the call to prayer is issued five times each day. An ordinary mosque has one minaret. Royal mosques have a few. This one has six. Which meant Sultan Ahmet was a somebody. However, this immediately proved to be hugely controversial because, prior to the construction of the Blue Mosque, the only mosque with that many minarets was the primary mosque in Mecca. Solution?  The sultan's architect built a seventh minaret to the mosque in Mecca. The Blue Mosque kept all six of its minarets, but in a way that kept the Mecca Mosque at number one.

A tourist can't go up in any of the six minarets. There is no special ticket to get such access. Not that I would want to climb straight up a minaret if the opportunity presented itself/