Sultan Ahmed Mosque (The Blue Mosque)

The Blue Mosque is one of the true gems of Istanbul and a masterpiece of Ottoman architecture. With its six minarets, 43-meter-tall dome, and exquisite interior featuring over 20,000 blue-hued Iznik tiles, the Sultan Ahmed Mosque will literally take your breath away.

Pick a spot in the corner on one of the huge red carpets and just admire the overlapping domes and half-domes, all surrounded by huge columns wrapped in white and blue.

The mosque is surrounded by walls and trees so if you really want to appreciate it's grandeur from outside, you'll need to move a little ways away to take it all in.

Ok, so the Hagia Sofia was stunning too, but that was taking its age, size, and historical importance into account too. For sheer visual splendor, the Sultan Ahmed Mosque (or Blue Mosque) takes the cake. The interior is empty except for carpets and a few low-hanging chandeliers, which gives added emphasis to the real star of the show: the tiles. The white plaster walls of this enormous mosque are covered in ridiculously intricate tiles all, not surprisingly, in blue. Trivia: did you know the word "turquoise" comes from the Old French word Turkish? The never-ending variations in the tile are simply overwhelming and can't be missed.

The six minarets stick up like beacons in the blue sky over Sultanahmet. The impressive Blue Mosque, along with the Hagia Sophia, is one of the most moving and amazing structures in all of Istanbul. The construction of the mosque was ordered in 1606 by a Sultan who wanted a mosque to match the Hagia Sophia just on the other side of Sultanahmet Park. It stands out for its size, its 260 windows brought from Venice, its massive dome, the thousands upon thousands of marvelous blue Iznik tiles, and its grand courtyard, the largest of any Ottoman mosque.

With its six minarets reaching for the sky and great dome, the Sultan Ahmed Mosque by night is a site to behold.

Impressive to see the banks at the entrance of the Blue Mosque The Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia Mosque are facing, as Christian-Muslim rivalry with St. Sophia Cathedral.