P erhaps the most celebrated site in Istanbul, the Blue Mosque has been filling hearts with awe for hundreds of years. This comes not only from the beauty of its decoration, but from the sheer size of the complex. The front and rear courtyards are almost as big as the mosque itself. The one in the rear is hemmed in by a series of cupolas joined together to form a portico on three sides. But the real eye-catcher from the outside is the domes. A series of ever-smaller domes surround the main dome like boulders strewn about the base of a waterfall. The center dome is 141 feet across, and 77 feet high. It is supported by four massive columns each 16 feet thick. The mosque sports six minarets. When it was completed, the sultan had to dispatch his architect to Mecca to build a seventh minaret at Elharam to reestablish the Holy City's supremacy. The Blue Mosque gets its name from the 20,000 Iznik blue tiles that line its interior, illuminated by light filtering through 260 stained glass windows. Wood inlaid with ivory, mother-of-pearl, and tortoiseshell is also abundant and add to the atmosphere. Prohibited by religious law from decorating a house of worship with icons the way Christian churches are, the Muslims pay tribute through patterns and exquisite mosaics.
Ahmed Arif
Five stars.
AYSHA DHORAT