An early-17th-century imperial mosque of six minarets and İznik tile, still a working place of worship, with the monuments of the Byzantine Hippodrome at its door.
Last reviewed on 27 September 2026.
The Sultan Ahmed Mosque (Sultanahmet Camii) — known to almost every visitor as the Blue Mosque — faces Hagia Sophia across the gardens of Sultanahmet Square, and its cascade of domes and six minarets defines the skyline of the historic peninsula. Unlike Hagia Sophia, it was built as a mosque, has always been one, and is free to enter. This page covers its history and design, how to visit respectfully, and the monuments of the Hippodrome and the Arasta Bazaar immediately outside. For the rest of the city, see the Istanbul sights hub and the Istanbul overview.
The mosque was commissioned by Sultan Ahmed I, who came to the throne as a teenager in 1603. Construction began in 1609 and the mosque was substantially complete by 1616–17, shortly before Ahmed's death at about twenty-seven. It was a political statement at a difficult moment: the empire had just concluded the long war with the Habsburgs on terms that brought no great victory, and was fighting Safavid Iran. Imperial mosques had traditionally been paid for with the spoils of successful campaigns; Ahmed's was financed from the treasury, and some of the religious establishment criticised the expense.
The architect was Sedefkâr Mehmed Ağa, a pupil of the great Sinan, who had trained as a craftsman — his title sedefkâr means "worker in mother-of-pearl", and the inlaid doors and window shutters of the mosque reflect that background. He took the plan of Sinan's Şehzade Mosque, and ultimately of Hagia Sophia, and developed it into a perfectly symmetrical design: a central dome supported by four semi-domes, with smaller domes stepping down at the corners.
The mosque was the centrepiece of a külliye, a charitable complex. It included a medrese (theological college), a primary school, a hospital, a public kitchen, shops whose rents paid for its upkeep, and the domed tomb of Ahmed I, where the sultan, his wife Kösem Sultan and several of their sons, including the later sultans Osman II and Murad IV, are buried. The tomb stands on the north side of the complex, towards Sultanahmet Square.
Six minarets was an extraordinary number: most imperial mosques had two or four. The best-known story explains it as a misunderstanding — the sultan asked for golden minarets (altın minare) and the architect heard six (altı minare). A second story says the number caused offence because only the Great Mosque in Mecca had as many, and that Ahmed resolved the problem by paying for a seventh minaret there. Both tales are popular traditions rather than documented history, but they have been told for centuries and are part of the mosque's lore. Four of the minarets rise from the corners of the prayer hall, each with three balconies; the other two, at the far corners of the forecourt, have two.
The interior is a single vast space under a dome roughly 23.5 metres in diameter and about 43 metres high, carried on four massive fluted piers, sometimes nicknamed the "elephant's feet". The piers are much bulkier than those in Sinan's finest mosques, and architectural historians often note that the space feels heavier as a result, but the effect of the domes rising in tiers is still overwhelming.
The name "Blue Mosque" comes from the colour of the interior decoration. The lower walls and especially the galleries are covered with İznik tiles — more than 20,000 by the figure usually given — in patterns of tulips, carnations, roses, cypress trees and vines, mostly in blues and greens. The mosque's commission was so large that it strained the İznik workshops, and tile quality varies: the best panels are among the finest of their time, while others show the decline in colour and technique that set in during the 17th century. The upper surfaces and domes are painted rather than tiled, with stencilled patterns in which blue dominates; much of that paintwork is from later renewals.
Light comes through more than two hundred windows; the originals had 17th-century coloured glass, since replaced. The mihrab is carved from white marble, with a fragment of the Black Stone of the Kaaba said to be set into it, and beside it stands the tall marble minbar. The sultan's lodge (hünkâr mahfili), raised on columns to one side of the mihrab, was reached by a ramped pavilion outside so that the sultan could ride almost to the door. Low-hanging chandeliers — originally for oil lamps — hang on long cables, keeping the light at human height.
A major restoration began in 2017 and lasted until 2023, during which scaffolding filled much of the prayer hall and parts of the mosque were screened off. The work reinforced the structure, especially the domes and minarets, which had been damaged over the centuries by earthquakes, and cleaned or renewed the painted decoration, stained glass and tiles. The mosque reopened fully in spring 2023. If older photographs show you a hall full of scaffolding, that is why; it is now clear.
The Blue Mosque is a working mosque, used for the five daily prayers and heavily attended on Fridays and religious holidays. Visitors are welcome outside prayer times and entry is free; there may be a donation box, which is optional.
Friday midday is the worst time to try to visit; so are the religious holidays of Ramazan Bayramı and Kurban Bayramı, when the mosque is full of worshippers. During Ramadan, evening crowds gather in Sultanahmet Square for iftar, and the atmosphere is festive, but visiting hours inside may be affected.
The long open space along the mosque's west side, still called At Meydanı ("horse square"), follows the line of the Hippodrome of Constantinople, the chariot-racing stadium begun under Septimius Severus and enlarged by Constantine when he made the city his capital in 330. It held tens of thousands of spectators, adjoined the Great Palace of the emperors, and was the stage for triumphs, executions and riots — including the Nika riots of 532 that destroyed the previous Hagia Sophia. The track itself lies several metres below today's ground. Three monuments of its central barrier (the spina) still stand:
An Egyptian obelisk of Thutmose III from the temple of Karnak, about 3,500 years old, erected here by Theodosius I in 390. Only the upper part survives. Its marble base has reliefs of the emperor and court watching the races from the imperial box.
A bronze column of three intertwined snakes, made to commemorate the Greek victory over Persia at Plataea in 479 BC and dedicated at Delphi. Constantine brought it here. The heads are lost; part of one is in the İstanbul Archaeology Museums.
A rough stone column at the south end, repaired in the 10th century under Constantine VII. It was once sheathed in gilded bronze plates, stripped by the crusaders in 1204.
An octagonal domed fountain at the north end, a gift of Kaiser Wilhelm II commemorating his visit to Sultan Abdülhamid II in 1898, made in Germany and assembled here in 1900–01.
On the west side of the Hippodrome, the 16th-century palace of İbrahim Pasha, grand vizier to Süleyman the Magnificent, houses the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts, with one of the best collections of early carpets in the world — a natural stop if you are interested in carpets and kilims. At the Hippodrome's southern end, the ground drops away and you can glimpse the curved substructure (the sphendone) that supported the stadium's rounded end.
Behind the mosque on its southeast side runs the Arasta Bazaar, a single straight street of vaulted shops built as part of the original complex, whose rents helped fund the mosque. Today it sells carpets, ceramics, textiles and souvenirs. It is calmer and more compact than the Grand Bazaar, though not cheaper, and the same rules on quality and bargaining apply. From the Arasta you can reach the Great Palace Mosaic Museum, which displays floor mosaics from the imperial palace that once covered this whole slope — hunting scenes, animals and rural life of the 5th–6th centuries.
The name comes from the interior, which is decorated with more than 20,000 İznik tiles, by the usual count, mostly in blues and greens, and with blue-dominated painted patterns on the upper walls and domes. Its official name is the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, after the sultan who commissioned it.
Yes. There is no entrance fee for the Sultan Ahmed Mosque. A donation box may be present, and giving is optional. Visitors use a separate entrance from worshippers and are admitted outside prayer times.
It closes to visitors for a period around each of the five daily prayers and for longer around the Friday midday prayer. Prayer times change with the season, so check the day's times for Istanbul and arrive just after a prayer has finished.
No contemporary source explains it. A popular story says the sultan asked for golden minarets (altın) and was misheard as saying six (altı). Another says the number rivalled the mosque in Mecca, which was then given a seventh. Both are traditions rather than documented history.
No. They face each other across Sultanahmet Square. Hagia Sophia is a 6th-century Byzantine church converted into a mosque in 1453. The Blue Mosque was built as a mosque between 1609 and about 1617 for Sultan Ahmed I and has six minarets.
Yes. A major restoration ran from 2017 to 2023, strengthening the domes and minarets and renewing the decoration. The mosque reopened fully in 2023, so the scaffolding seen in older photographs has gone.