About Blue Mosque (Sultan Ahmed Mosque)
Built between 1609 and 1617 by the architect Sedefkâr Mehmed Ağa, the Sultan Ahmed Mosque got its nickname from its decoration: more than 21,000 İznik tiles and paintings in which blue dominates. A popular story says the architect heard "golden minarets" (altın) as "six minarets" (altı); historians treat this as a legend, but all six are there.
After a long restoration, it reopened in 2023. Because it is a mosque in use, visits stop for the five daily prayers and, on Fridays, during the midday prayer. Visitors enter through the south gate, take off their shoes and are given a plastic bag to carry them in.
