A Tale of Two Landmarks

The Blue Mosque (1609 - 1616)

The Blue Mosque (officially the Sultan Ahmed Mosque) was built between 1609 and 1616 CE. (163 years after the conquest in 1453 CE)

While Hagia Sophia uses its 40 windows to create a “mystical” gloom, the Blue Mosque uses over 200 stained-glass windows and thousands of blue tiles to create a bright interior (over 20,000 handmade iznik tiles).

The Dome: The Blue Mosque’s dome is slightly smaller than Hagia Sophia’s, but because it sits on a series of “cascading” smaller domes, it looks more symmetrical and balanced from the outside.