Around the Blue Mosque - Strolling Through Istanbul: The Classic Guide to the City - page 107

6
Around
the Blue Mosque
The east side of the At Meydanı, the ancient Hippodrome, is
occupied by Sultan Ahmet Camii, usually known to tourists as the
BlueMosque. The Blue Mosque is thought by many to be the most
splendid of the imperial mosques in the city, with its graceful cascade
of domes and semidomes, its six slender minarets accentuating the
corners of the courtyard and the building, the lovely grey colour of the
stone set of by gilded ornaments on domes and minarets, and its
generally imposing but gracious proportions. It is one of the principal
adornments on the skyline of the old city, particulary when one
sees it from a ship approaching Istanbul across the Sea of Marmara.
The Blue Mosque was founded by Sultan Ahmet I and constructed
by the architect Mehmet Ağa between 1609 and 1616. Tradition has
it that the young Sultan was so enthusiastic about his mosque that
he often pitched in himself, to hurry along the construction. he
same tradition tells us that the Sultan appeared at the dedication
ceremony wearing a hat shaped like the Prophet's foot, in token of
his humility. But Ahmet was given little time to enjoy his mosque, for
he died the year after its completion, when he was only 27 years of
age.
Sultan Ahmet Camii is preceded by a courtyard as large as the
interior of the mosque itself, with monumental entryways at each of
three sides. The central or western gate is the grandest of these; its
outer façade is decorated with a calligraphic inscription by Dervish
Mehmet, the father of Evliya Çelebi. The courtyard is in the classic
style, bordered by a peristyle of 26 columns forming a portico covered
by 30 small domes. At the centre of the courtyard there is a handsome
octagonal şadırvan which, like the one at Yeni Cami, now serves only
a decorative purpose. The ritual ablutions are actually performed at