The Blue Mosque: Why Sultan Ahmed Built Six Minarets and Why That Caused a Problem

Sultan Ahmed I was 19 years old when construction of his mosque began in 1609, and he made a decision that created a diplomatic incident before the building was even finished. He commissioned six minarets. At the time, the mosque in Mecca, the holiest site in Islam, had only six minarets. Constructing an equivalent number for a mosque in Istanbul was considered presumptuous. The solution was to fund the addition of a seventh minaret to the Mecca mosque. Problem resolved, and the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, with its six minarets, was completed in 1616.

This is the kind of story the mosque rewards if you arrive knowing a little about it. Without context, it is a magnificent building. With it, it becomes legible.

The interior holds 20,000 hand-painted Iznik tiles in blues, teals, and whites covering the galleries and arches above eye level. The specific blue of 17th-century Iznik production, a turquoise cobalt that cannot be exactly replicated with modern methods, is what gives the mosque its nickname. Natural light enters through 260 windows in the domes and semi-domes, and the effect shifts continuously through the day.

Visiting

The mosque is a functioning place of worship, not a museum. Entry is free; access for non-Muslim visitors is permitted outside prayer times, which occur five times daily. Closures typically run 30-90 minutes around each prayer. The best strategy is to check the prayer schedule (widely available online for any given day) and plan arrival for early morning, when the light is good and the tour groups have not yet arrived.

Dress modestly: covered shoulders and knees for everyone, headscarves for women (provided at the entrance if needed). Remove your shoes at the entrance; you carry them in a bag provided. Photography is permitted inside but flash photography is not.

The Sultanahmet Context

The Blue Mosque sits in Sultanahmet Square directly across from Hagia Sophia, which was itself recently converted back to an active mosque (2020) after serving as a museum for decades. The two buildings face each other across the square and the combined weight of their histories is considerable. Hagia Sophia, built in 537 CE under the Emperor Justinian, was the largest church in the world for nearly 1,000 years. The Blue Mosque was built in deliberate architectural dialogue with it.

Both are free to enter; Hagia Sophia now requires modest dress and prayer-time awareness as well. Give both buildings proper time.

The Basilica Cistern is a 6th-century underground reservoir 150 metres long, held up by 336 columns including two with Medusa heads as bases, inverted and sideways, the reason for which remains uncertain. Entry is around 200 TL. The Topkapi Palace, 10 minutes’ walk away, was the administrative and residential centre of the Ottoman Empire for 400 years; the treasury section alone requires half a day.

Where to Eat

The restaurants immediately around Sultanahmet are variable. Walk 10 minutes to Karaköy or cross the Galata Bridge and explore the streets around the Spice Bazaar for better food at lower prices. Hamdi Restaurant, above the Spice Bazaar, does southeastern Anatolian food with a rooftop view of the Golden Horn that is genuinely extraordinary.

For hummus and street food: the stalls inside the Spice Bazaar perimeter sell dried figs, Turkish delight, and simit that are better and cheaper than the tourist-facing shops on the main square.

Getting There

The T1 tram line stops at Sultanahmet, a 5-minute walk from the mosque. From the airport, take the M11 metro to Gayrettepe, then the M2 to Kabatas, then the T1 tram. Or simply take the Havalimani metro directly to the Sultanahmet area, checking the current route on the Istanbul Metro app, which is more reliable than any static description for a network that keeps expanding.