We visited two mosques in Istanbul – the Blue Mosque and Suleyman the Magnificent. It is hard to convey the immense scale of these buildings. And I realized when I was going through the photos that we didn’t get any good, close up pictures of the fabulous tilework.

Blue Mosque, built 1609-1616, and named for the mostly blue Iznik tilework.

Ablutions Fountain

Muezzin Mahfili. Faint lines in the carpet indicate direction to Mecca.

Wow. Nothing shouts “tourist” more than walking around with a guidebook!

We visited Suleyman the Magnificent Mosque one afternoon after touring Topkapi Palace that morning. We walked all the way, over 1 hour including a detour to stop at a pharmacy, check pricing of a Turkish bath and walk through the Grand Bazaar to find a replacement for my torn daypack. It was a long, long walk up and down hills on a hot and humid day. So I blame being hot, sweaty and worn out for not having very many pictures 🙂 And it really is too bad, because I enjoyed Suleyman much more than the Blue Mosque. Maybe it was because there were very few people there, or maybe it was the serene grounds, or possibly the large sense of space inside. The cemetery was closed for repairs and I was disappointed as I had looked forward to seeing the tombs of Suleyman and his wife, Roxelana. In fact, we had bad timing with museums – The Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts, part of the Archeological Museum, and the Ephesus Museum were all closed for renovation. But good excuse to go back some day!

Suleyman the Magnificent Mosque, constructed 1550-1557 –

 

View of the Bosphorus from the Grounds

(Originally Published 10/23/2013)