Perhaps
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.
