The Blue Mosque was built by Master Architect Sedefkar Mehmet Aga on behalf of Sultan I. Ahmed between the years 1609-1616 on the historical peninsula in Istanbul. It is called ” Blue Mosque ” by Europeans because it was decored with blue, green and white Iznik tiles.
Blue Mosque is the first mosque in Turkey with six minarets. According to a legend that the Sultan I. Ahmed wanted to make the six minarets covered by gold but it exceeded the budget of Sultan.
There is a very interesting fact about this great monument ; There is a heavy iron cord on the west entrance of the courtyard.
The sultans required to bend under this cord not to hit their heads while they were entering into the courtyard with his horse’s. This was to give a symbolic action to show the purpose of when entering a mosque, even the sultans should rearrange themselves. This gives us a sense of ” No Matter Who you are , Everyone is equal on eye of Allah ”
