Our next stop was the Blue Mosque - officially named the Sultanahmet after the Sultan who built it. It is the second largest mosque in the city and took 7 years to be completed. It has 6 minarets which used to used in the past for call to prayers. Today, there are speakers attached to the minarets and they blast out those call to prayers five times a day. Any mosque with more than 2 minarets was built by royalty. There are 22,000 pieces of blue tiles in the mosque and they will be 400 years old next year. Hundreds of lamps in the mosque used to be oil lamps but are now converted to electricity. The mosque is still in active use and all visitors most take off their shoes, women must cover their head, arms and legs and men must cover their legs if their shorts are above the knees so they are given a large scarf to wrap around their waist. The pictures below give you an idea of what the mosque looks like. The first one is an external view and unfortunately, I couldn't get all 6 minarets in. The 2nd one is one of the walls of blue tiles (although they don't look very blue). The 3rd one is a partial view of the ceiling. The 4th one is of the lamps hanging from the ceiling and the last one is of you know who.
Our third stop was at the Hagia Sofia which is a church that was later converted to a mosque and is now a museum. This is actually the 3rd building of the Hagia Sofia and took 5 years to complete. The first one was built in the 4th century and burnt to the ground. The 2nd was built in the 5th century and fell victim to an earthquake - only a few ruins remain. The 3rd one was completed in 532. The Hagia Sofia covers 7,000 square meters and the dome is 56.6 meters high. This is actually the 4th dome built on the current structure as the other three succumbed to collapse because they were inadequately built. The building was a church from 532 - 1453. After the surrender of Constantinople, Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror claimed it for the Islamic cult. They added minarets, a mihrab (the Iman's place on the alter), a minber (stairs leading to a pulpit) and a few other things and it was used as a mosque from 1453 - 1935. In 1935, it was converted to a museum. The pictures below give you an idea of the Hagia Sofia. The first one is of the altar with the minber to the right; the 2nd & 3rd ones are huge medallions added during the conversion to Islam; the 4th and 5th ones are pictures of the altar and minber respectively.
Our 4th stop was to the Basilica Cistern which is the largest of over 100 cisterns in the city. They were built to supply water to the city and there is actually a cistern under the Sofia Hagia. Only three cisterns were restored and are now used as tourists attractions. The Basilica Cistern dates back to 532, is approximately 70 x 140 meters in size and has 336 columns. Two large heads of Medusa were brought to this cistern and the reason for bringing them is unknown, although there are no lack of stories surrounding them. One head was put in upside down and the other was put in sideways. Because it was underground, the pictures are not bright but hopefully the ones below give you and idea of the size, etc. The 3rd picture is of a column symbolizes tears shed by the loved ones of the slaves who built the cistern.
Our last stop was at a local shop where pottery is made of quartz (really expensive - 85% quartz) and granite. The first picture shows the young man at a kick wheel making a vase and the second picture shows the finished product.
These are bonus pictures of an animal walking down the main drag with his owner in front. If you can figure out what kind of animal that is, perhaps you can let me know but I can tell you that everyone was stopping to take a picture.
This was fantastic!
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