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Description

Finely executed plan and view of the Sultan Ahmed Mosque (Blue Mosque) in Istanbul.

The Sultan Ahmed Mosque is a historic mosque in Istanbul. The mosque is popularly known as the Blue Mosque for the blue tiles adorning the walls of its interior. It was built from 1609 to 1616, during the rule of Ahmed I. After the Peace of Zsitvatorok and the unfavorable result of the war with Persia, Sultan Ahmed I, decided to build a big mosque in Istanbul to reassert Ottoman power. While his predecessors had paid for their mosques with their spoils of war, Ahmed I had to remove the funds of the Treasury, because he had not gained remarkable victories.

The mosque was built on the site of the palace of the Byzantine emperors, in front of the basilica Ayasofya (Hagia Sophia, formerly the seat of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, which at that time, the primary imperial mosque in Istanbul) and the hippodrome, a site of significant symbolic meaning as it dominated the city skyline from the south. Big parts of the south shore of the mosque rest on the foundations, the vaults of the old Grand Palace.