Sultan Ahmed Mosque

Sultan Ahmed Mosque

1617

6036

Blue Mosque

Bugbee, Gordon (photograph)

Single Built Works

Turkey (nation)

Istanbul (inhabited place)

Ottoman (style)

mosques (buildings)

minarets

View from a distance of the Blue Mosque with its six minarets. "The Sultan Ahmet Mosque, popularly known as the Blue Mosque, was completed in 1617 just prior to the untimely death of its then 27-year old eponymous patron, Sultan Ahmet I. The mosque dominates Istanbul’s majestic skyline with its elegant composition of ascending domes and six slender soaring minarets. Although considered one of the last classical Ottoman structures, the incorporation of new architectural and decorative elements in the mosque’s building program and its symbolic placement at the imperial center of the city point to a departure from the classical tradition innovated under the famous 16th-century master architect, Mimar Sinan ... The mosque features two main sections: a large unified prayer hall crowned by the main dome and an equally spacious courtyard. In contrast to earlier imperial mosques in Istanbul, the monotony of the exterior stone walls is relieved through numerous windows and a blind arcade. Huge elevated and recessed entrances penetrate three sides of its precinct to provide access to the sacred core. The courtyard’s inner frame is a domed arcade, which is uniform on all sides except for the prayer hall entrance where the arches expand,"--by Radha Dalal, KahnAcademy website.

Height: 240 feet, width: 213 feet, minaret height: 210 feet

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GPB-BYZ2-1782