Hagia Sophia  & The Sultan Ahmed Mosque

Overview:

Rep­re­sent­ing the sto­ried his­to­ry, reli­gion, ide­ol­o­gy and beau­ty of the past, present and no doubt future of the won­der­ful city of Istan­bul, the twin won­ders of Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque and both com­plete­ly dif­fer­ent and yet con­tin­u­ous­ly entwined won­ders that have unit­ed and divid­ed the peo­ple of Istan­bul for cen­turies.  

Dot­ting the sky­line of Istan­bul, these now twin Mosques sit oppo­site each oth­er and are recog­nis­able as the icons of Istan­bul, sit­ting on the banks of the Istan­bul Riv­er in the majes­tic foun­tain filled Sul­tanah­met Park – and being recog­nis­able for their beau­ti­ful exte­ri­ors that fea­ture tow­er­ing minarets, encom­pass­ing domes and of course the famous blue tiles of the Blue Mosque that light up Istan­bul.  

Rep­re­sent­ing the her­itage of the great city, the Hagia Sophia was con­struct­ed first as a church in 325 and then rebuilt in 527 and since under­go­ing many tur­bu­lent times includ­ing con­quests, fire and dam­age which has seen it been rebuilt and resigned and seen in moved from being a church, to a mosque to a muse­um and then back to a mosque in ear­ly 2020 – when this jew­el of the Byzan­tium Empire was reclaimed by the Turk­ish gov­ern­ment.  

Sim­i­lar­ly, the Blue Mosque has under­gone such sto­ried his­to­ry, being first erect­ed in the 17th cen­tu­ry by Sul­tan Ahmet – who dreamed of cre­at­ing a Mosque to over­shad­ow and dwarf the majes­tic Hagia Sophia. Con­sid­ered one of the last remain­ing archi­tec­tur­al mas­ter­pieces of the Ottoman Empire the Blue Mosque fea­tures not only its mes­meris­ing mul­ti domes that are adorned with its famous blue tiles, but also a incred­i­ble inte­ri­or with a 10,000 strong still active prayer hall which is lit up by a series of stained-glass win­dows and blue tiles that cre­ate a spir­i­tu­al ambi­ence with­in this great com­plex.  

In con­stant com­pe­ti­tion and rep­re­sent­ing the her­itage and his­to­ry of Istan­bul, the twin won­ders of the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque rep­re­sent the unique blend of Istanbul’s reli­gions and cul­tures, and while they may also reflect the bloody and sto­ried part of this city across the cen­turies – the mag­nif­i­cent Domes and Blue tiles of the won­ders which light up the Istan­bul sky­line – com­bined with their stun­ning inte­ri­ors and court­yards of these two spir­i­tu­al com­plex­es now hope­ful­ly embody the peace­ful  reli­gious, spir­i­tu­al and polit­i­cal future of Istan­bul – and stand togeth­er as two immense and beau­ti­ful won­ders of the world.   

Where 

Rep­re­sent­ing the her­itage and his­to­ry of Turkey, the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia sit oppo­site each oth­er on the top of a hill in the Sul­tanah­met Park in the Sul­tanah­met dis­trict next to the next to the gor­geous Bosporus Strait in the heart of the beau­ti­ful city of Istan­bul.   

Getting there:  

Lying in the heart of Istan­bul, the twin won­ders of the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sofia are incred­i­bly acces­si­ble – so hav­ing got­ten your­self to Istan­bul which is eas­i­ly reached by Plane into one of the 10 air­ports of Istan­bul – with our rec­om­men­da­tion being to head to Istan­bul New Air­port which is the main and most acces­si­ble air­port in Istan­bul – you then have the option of grab­bing a taxi, walk­ing or jump­ing on pub­lic trans­port to reach the won­ders, which stand oppo­site each oth­er in the majes­tic Sul­tanah­met Park.  

For those not walk­ing or hail­ing a taxi, the first eas­i­est option is to get to the won­ders is to take Istanbul’s incred­i­bly effi­cient and cheap sub­way sys­tem to Kabatas train sta­tion – which is acces­si­ble by mul­ti­ple lines across Istan­bul includ­ing from Tak­sim Square. Once at Kabatas train sta­tion you can either spend 20 min­utes walk­ing through the streets of Istan­bul to the Sul­tanah­met Park or jump on the T1 tram that will drop you right off at Sul­tanah­met Park on the Sul­tanah­met Tram Stop – you’ll see the icon­ic out­lines and minarets of Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque com­ing into view as you approach it – then from Sul­tanah­met Park it’s a sim­ple mat­ter of slow­ly walk­ing  

For those who want a more scenic view of the won­ders – you have the option of view­ing them on a tourist cruise across the Bosporus Riv­er in the famous Istan­bul lin­er – which act as effi­cient fer­ry trans­ports from Istan­bul to var­i­ous oth­er parts of Turkey. While we wouldn’t rec­om­mend this route as a way to get to Hagia Sofia or the Blue Mosque – for those who want to expe­ri­ence stun­ning views of the twin won­ders – par­tic­u­lar­ly at sun­set – or of the famed Istan­bul Sky­line from the shore – this is the route for you as you jour­ney across the beau­ti­ful Istan­bul Riv­er tak­ing in these two incred­i­ble won­ders of the world.  

Best time to Visit:  

While both the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sofia are vis­itable and open all year round – we’d advise head­ing between March and May where you’ll find the tem­per­a­tures in Istan­bul much more man­age­able and where the two won­ders are less like­ly to become over­crowd­ed.  

For vis­it­ing, we’d advise vis­it­ing between 9 – 12 for the Hagia Sophia and between 2–5 for the Blue Mosque as this will avoid any clash­es with the call to prayer and also give you plen­ty of time to explore the won­ders – be sure as well to avoid vis­it­ing on Fri­days and to make plen­ty of time catch the stun­ning sun­set over the two won­ders in the evening as it’s a tru­ly mag­i­cal time when the exte­ri­ors of both won­ders come alive and sparkle in the evening sun.  

Explore:

Sit­ting oppo­site each oth­er in the heart of the stun­ning city of Istan­bul, the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque are archi­tec­tural­ly beau­ti­ful and unique struc­tures that dot the city’s shore­line and which also rep­re­sent and cap­ture the fas­ci­nat­ing and sto­ried his­to­ry of the country’s her­itage, beliefs and past.   

Tow­er­ing and icon­ic, the two won­ders are also placed in con­stant com­pe­ti­tion, which is no sur­prise giv­en the moti­va­tion behind the con­struc­tion of the Blue Mosque to eclipse the Hagia Sophia – and for cen­turies the two won­ders have both divid­ed and unit­ed the peo­ple of Turkey and been the sight of many polit­i­cal, reli­gious, and ide­o­log­i­cal bat­tles that still rage to this day.  

How­ev­er, both the com­pet­ing ide­o­log­i­cal and archi­tec­tur­al dif­fer­ences can take away from the sheer beau­ty and sig­nif­i­cance of the won­ders, with the tow­er­ing minarets, the stun­ning inte­ri­ors and the famous blue and red exte­ri­ors of both com­plex­es being unique­ly beau­ti­ful and rep­re­sent­ing the absolute best of Byzan­tine and Ottoman archi­tec­ture and beliefs. 

There­fore, with a trip to both won­ders being essen­tial when vis­it­ing the beau­ti­ful city of Istan­bul, the below are our guides to explor­ing the unique won­ders of the world that are the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque. 

Hagia Sophia 

Begin­ning with the old­est won­der, the Hagia Sophia which rep­re­sents the best of Byzan­tine Archi­tec­ture and con­tains the most sto­ried addi­tions of the Ottoman Empires, before being con­vert­ed into a muse­um, the stun­ning Hagia Sophia with it’s icon­ic red walls and domes sits in the mid­dle of the Sul­tanah­met Park where it has stood for thou­sands of years since it’s con­struc­tion in 360 AD.  

Orig­i­nal­ly build as a church – at the direc­tion of Emper­or Con­stan­tine who once tried to move the cap­i­tal of the Roman Empire to Istan­bul – Hagia Sophia was once the might­i­est and biggest church  on the plan­et and was the first to fea­ture a giant round dome mak­ing it not only the first church of its kind but also an archi­tec­tur­al land­mark and first and forms the basis on which fel­low won­ders includ­ing the might St Peters Basil­i­ca were mod­elled on.  

Hagia Sophia stood as a mighty church for almost a cen­tu­ry – sur­viv­ing a rebuild in 537 AD – until the Ottoman’s con­quered Istan­bul in the 15th cen­tu­ry at which point recog­nis­ing it’s immense beau­ty the won­der was con­vert­ed into a mosque which it remains today after a con­tro­ver­sial rul­ing in 2020 that declared the site was no longer a muse­um.  

Embody­ing the reli­gious and ide­o­log­i­cal strug­gles of Turkey that has paved the way for the mod­ern belief sys­tem in the coun­try, the Hagia Sofia has not only a sto­ried his­to­ry but with its high ceil­ings, hun­dreds of low fly­ing lights and icon­ic domes the Hagia Sofia is a tru­ly beau­ti­ful icon of Turkey, which can be first explored from admir­ing it’s stun­ning exte­ri­or.  

Exte­ri­or:  From first approach towards Hagia Sophia from the beau­ti­ful Sul­tanah­met Park you’ll notice the tow­er­ing and large dome sur­round­ed by a series by four minarets and a path­way that leads you through a series of foun­tains to the glow­ing red walls of this incred­i­ble won­der. 

Jour­ney­ing along­side the danc­ing foun­tains and green grass of Sul­tanah­met Park that adds to the beau­ty of the won­der and which make for stun­ning pho­tos of the exte­ri­or of Hagia Sophia, the glow­ing pale blue Dome itself is right­ly revered as an archi­tec­tur­al feat– and is believed to have been one of the first time such a dome was applied to a catholic build­ing.  

But from an aes­thet­i­cal per­spec­tive the great time high­lights the Hagia Sophia, sit­ting with a  gold­en spire atop the com­plex and based upon a rec­tan­gu­lar struc­ture that marks the stun­ning cathe­dral like inte­ri­or of Hagia Sophia.  

A beau­ti­ful spot and one that makes for great pho­tos and is view­able form across the beau­ti­ful city of Istan­bul, the exte­ri­or of Hagia Sophia are also sup­port­ed by four minarets on each cor­ner – which were added in the 15th cen­tu­ry by the Ottomans in com­pli­ment to it’s orig­i­nal struc­ture and which rep­re­sent the unique blend and com­ple­ment of archi­tec­ture and reli­gion with­in Hagia Sophia – with the minarets which reach some 200 feet into the Turk­ish Sky rep­re­sent­ing the call for prayer which still echoes around Hagia Sophia today as wor­ship­pers and tourists vis­it this incred­i­ble won­der and ven­ture through the stun­ning court­yards of Hagia Sophia in through one of it’s incred­i­ble entrance doors to see its stun­ning inte­ri­or.  

Hagia Sophia Inte­ri­or  As a still active Mosque, when ven­tur­ing inside you’ll need to be obser­vant of the reli­gious pro­to­cols for enter­ing a mosque includ­ing cov­er­ing your hair if a female and being sure to come dressed appro­pri­ate­ly ‑with Hagia Sophia also closed to tourists dur­ing prayer time through­out the day.  

Yet when you do vis­it, you’ll find your­self step­ping into a large open cathe­dral like inte­ri­or with the inner walls and dome adorned in var­i­ous black and gold mar­ble that is awe-inspir­ing and breath-tak­ing and which rep­re­sents the best of Byzan­tine and Ottoman Archi­tec­ture with the great black mar­ble pil­lars, mosaics and Fres­cos all com­bin­ing to make up what one was and remains one of the great­est and most beau­ti­ful build­ings on the plan­ets.  

Begin­ning with the floor, which dates back to the 5th cen­tu­ry you’ll notice – espe­cial­ly with the absence of shoes – that the floor beneath you is not only a touch cold, but also that  it con­sist of stun­ning and mul­ti-coloured mar­ble and stones that not only adds to the sotried atmos­phere inside Hagia Sophia but which itself has stood through cen­turies along­side the ever chang­ing pur­pose of the won­der.  

Mov­ing into the inte­ri­or itself you’ll notice the clash between Chris­t­ian and Islam­ic reli­gion and styles – with the mighty gold dome above giv­ing way to a series of Islam­ic signs and carv­ings on the inte­ri­or wall – with the stun­ning dome whose inte­ri­or is gold stretch­ing to the high­est point inside Hagia Sofia at more than 180 foot.  

You’ll also notice that the inside of Hagia Sofia opens up into a cathe­dral like style, with the walls adorned with tow­er­ing arch win­dows, extend­ed arched open­ings, Chris­t­ian mosaics which date to the 10th cen­tu­ry and colour­ful fres­cos, all of which sit between stun­ning tiles and Mar­ble along the walls. 

Look­ing clos­er at the arch­es and columns with­in the inside of Hagia Sophia and you’ll get a chance to appre­ci­ate both their stun­ning beau­ty and the archi­tec­tur­al feat of their con­struc­tion and their cul­tur­al and reli­gious sig­nif­i­cance with one col­umn in par­tic­u­lar­ly always stand­ing out – the famous wish­ing col­umn that dates back to the con­struc­tion of Hagia Sophia and which can – accord­ing to leg­end — heal ill­ness­es when touched, with the columns unique pow­er keep­ing it from ever going dry and sur­viv­ing the bat­tles and his­to­ry of the Hagia Sofia.  

Jour­ney­ing fur­ther through the inte­ri­or and tak­ing time to gaze upon the stun­ning ceil­ings and beau­ti­ful win­dows with­in the inte­ri­or of Hagia Sophia you’ll also notice two doors one large and one which looks a lit­tle out of place, these are the Nice and Impe­r­i­al Doors.  

The Nice door is believed to be the old­est piece of archi­tec­ture with­in Hagia Sophia dat­ing back to 832 con­struc­tion and is adorned with not only unique and stun­ning carv­ings from this era, but also by plants from across Europe which were bought to hang on the door as a sign of respect to the beau­ty of Hagia Sophia. For the larg­er door – known as the Impe­r­i­al Door – which was unsur­pris­ing­ly used by Emper­ors to access Hagia Sophia for prayer and reflec­tion, you’ll notice it as being not only tow­er­ing in size but being con­struct­ed out of wood – with the wood itself sup­pos­ed­ly res­cued from the ark of Noah – and sci­ence con­firm­ing it dates back to the 6th cen­tu­ry – a tru­ly unique and sto­ried arte­fact with­in the won­der of Hagia Sophia.  

Hav­ing tak­en time to explore the low­er lev­el inte­ri­or and the stun­ning mar­ble floor, doors and gold and black inte­ri­or and win­dows, you can also ven­ture your way up to the upper gallery – with sec­tions of this gallery which are avail­able giv­ing you an eagle eye view of the stun­ning inte­ri­or below and allow­ing you to ful­ly appre­ci­ate the beau­ty of Hagia Sofia from a view­ing pan­el.  

It’s on the upper lev­el as well that you’ll find the famous and mys­te­ri­ous mar­ble door – which was used by dig­ni­taries and polit­i­cal fig­ures to enter into a large hall like room from where meet­ings and dis­cus­sions would take place that have shaped the future of both the Hagia Sophia won­der and of the world itself.  

 The upper floor is also a great place to view some of the stun­ning mosaics and fres­coes that line the inte­ri­or of the Hagia Sofia. All depict­ing catholic events – on account of the Hagia Sofia being a catholic church on its incep­tion. While the mosaics are all stun­ning and unique and are deserv­ing of your time, we’ve picked out our five favourite that most def­i­nite­ly should not be missed when vis­it­ing Hagia Sofia:  

The Emper­or Alexan­der Mosa­ic – Found atop the sec­ond floor, the Emper­or Alexan­der mosa­ic is prob­a­bly one of the most over­looked and dif­fi­cult to find mosaics and should be the first Fres­co you take in from the upper gallery – and depicts the great Emper­or Alexan­der and was believed to have been trashed in one of the many bat­tles of Hagia Sophia in the late 18th cen­tu­ry before being re-dis­cov­ered and restored in the 20th cen­tu­ry – a tru­ly stun­ning mosa­ic that gives a fas­ci­nat­ing insight into the rev­er­ence in which Emper­ors con­sid­ered them­selves and of course being a beau­ti­ful and colour­ful mosa­ic that is well worth a view.  

Impe­r­i­al Gate mosa­ic - Found above the impe­r­i­al gate, the Impe­r­i­al Gate Mosa­ic dates back to the 9th cen­tu­ry and depicts the emper­or Leo Vi (known as Leo the wise) rep­re­sent­ing before a god like fig­ure upon a throne and bless­ing the emper­or. It is in our view par­tic­u­lar­ly spe­cial for both the reli­gious imagery and rev­er­ence in which Emper­ors were held – as well as course as the stun­ning colours and art work behind the mosa­ic.  

South­west­ern Mosa­ic — The south­west­ern entrance mosa­ic depicts the nurs­ing of the baby Jesus by the Vir­gin Mary with the two reli­gious sym­bols adorned by colour­ful stones and with an emper­or believed to Jus­tin­ian the first stand­ing watch­ing over them rep­re­sent­ing the believed con­nec­tion between emper­ors and reli­gious icons at the time.  

The Semi Dome Mosa­ic – Believed to have been recon­struct­ed in the 9th cen­tu­ry – fol­low­ing van­dal­ism dur­ing the Ottoman Con­quest, the Semi Dome Mosa­ic sits next to the great dome of Hagia Sophia and con­tains mul­ti­ple fre­socs – the most beau­ti­ful and sig­nif­i­cant is one depict­ing the Vir­gin Mary with Baby Jesus atop a gold­en throne – which is believed to be one of the most beau­ti­ful and old­est Byzan­tium fres­cos and the depic­tions of the angels Gabriel and Michael which although only par­tial­ly depict­ed and sad­ly worn away is a beau­ti­ful and sto­ried fres­co that under­lines the reli­gious impor­tant of the Hagia Sophia to Catholics.  

The Empress Zoe mosa­ic – Final­ly dat­ing back to the 11th cen­tu­ry is the stun­ning Empress Zoe Mosa­ic that once again depicts Jesus with Past emper­ors. In this Mosa­ic Jesus if found in is found in a typ­i­cal Byzan­tine robe (which offers a fas­ci­nat­ing insight into life dur­ing the Byzan­tine era) with the two emper­ors Con­stan­tine the fourth and the Empress Zoe stand­ing on either side of Christ and receiv­ing his bless­ing and approval. Aside from the reli­gious imagery the Empress Zoe mosa­ic is both beau­ti­ful and his­toric and offers an incred­i­ble view once again into both the rev­er­ence of Emper­ors and the art and beliefs of the Byzan­tine cul­ture.  

… 

There­fore hav­ing jour­neyed your way through the incred­i­ble court­yards and tak­ing in the stun­ning dome and minarets from the exte­ri­or you will have a unique chance to explore the breath-tak­ing inte­ri­or of the won­der of Hagia Sofia.  

With the incred­i­ble mar­ble floors and spir­i­tu­al columns of the inte­ri­or, along­side the mag­i­cal black and gold adorned walls which com­bined with the mosaics, win­dows and leg­endry doors and the reli­gious and ide­o­log­i­cal and evolv­ing sto­ried his­to­ry of this great tem­ple, gives you a unique chance to explore the past, present and no doubt future of the beau­ti­ful com­plex of Hagia Sofia that is a unique­ly beau­ti­ful and true won­der of the world – and we’d encour­age you to savour every minute of your expe­ri­ence ! 

The Blue Mosque (The Sultanahmet mosque)  

The Sul­tan Ahmet Mosque – known as the blue mosque on account of its beau­ti­ful blue tiled domes, walls and minarets, and is recog­nis­able not just thanks to its tow­er­ing posi­tion on the Istan­bul sky­line but also as one of the grand­est and most majes­tic mosques in both Turkey and on the plan­et.  

Sit­ting oppo­site the won­der of the Hagia Sophia in the gor­geous Sul­tanah­met Park, the blue mosque was com­plet­ed at the start of the 17th cen­tu­ry at the design of Sul­tan Ahmet – and is shroud­ed in con­tro­ver­sy and pol­i­tics, with the Blue Mosque being specif­i­cal­ly designed to dwarf the Hagia Sophia to stamp the Ottoman and Islam­ic beliefs upon Turkey.  

Con­sid­ered one of the hall­marks of beau­ti­ful Ottoman archi­tec­ture, the mosque hous­es more than 10,000 wor­ship­pers at a time mean­ing there’s a strict dress code for entry, and has evolved over cen­turies to incor­po­rate its cur­rent design which includes the stun­ning court­yards that offer immense views of the exte­ri­or of this won­der and the large hall prayer from where mul­ti­ple lights shine to light up the incred­i­ble stone walls, inte­ri­or archi­tec­ture and domed roof of this stun­ning and holy won­der.  

Exte­ri­or 

Mak­ing your way through the beau­ty of the Sul­tanah­met Park you’ll be able to take a moment to appre­ci­ate the stun­ning exte­ri­or of the blue mosque with the famous blue tiles shim­mer­ing on the great domes, half domes and guard­ed by the beau­ti­ful six minarets.  

Observ­ing the blue mosque from a far you’ll note both the domes and the blue tiles and mag­nif­i­cence of this struc­ture, then as you head towards it you’ll pass through the grand entrance (be sure to use the Hip­po­drome Entrance) through a Mar­ble Court­yard into the famous inner court­yard where the beau­ty of the exte­ri­or stands before you.  

Enter­ing into the inner court­yard you’ll find your­self sur­round­ed by arch­es on each side which are con­struct­ed in Islam­ic and Ottoman designs – with a beau­ti­ful and con­tin­u­ous flow­ing foun­tain found in the cen­tre of the court­yard.  

Tak­ing a moment to appre­ci­ate the beau­ti­ful stone design of both the court­yard and of the per­fect­ly sym­met­ri­cal design of the blue mosque – you’ll also notice the famed tomb of Sul­tan Ahmed lying next with­in the court­yard, who was buried along­side his mas­ter­piece after its con­struc­tion.  

Being the biggest court­yard of any Ottoman Mosque – and one that ranks almost equal in size to the vast inte­ri­or, the inner court­yard is also a great place to snap some pho­tos of the bleu mosque – which is for­bid­den inside – and of course take in the stun­ning six minarets up close and per­son­al.  

The minarets – which were built to assist with the Islam­ic call to prayer are found with two with­in the court­yard and four on the Blue Mosques prayer hall, tow­er above the mosque and are unusu­al in their design – with six being con­sid­ered at the time an extrav­a­gan­za and leg­end going that when the six Minarets were dis­cov­ered the Sul­tan was chas­tised and an extra minaret was forced to be added onto the holy site of Mec­ca – although such tales are now con­sid­ered myths.  

Regard­less of their pur­pose or design, there’s no deny­ing that the minarets are stun­ning and their unique design – in an almost pen­cil like fash­ion are both unique and com­ple­ment and add to the beau­ty of the Blue Mosque and it’s exte­ri­or – and guide to way inside the stun­ning inte­ri­or and sacred won­der of the world.  

The Blue Mosque Interior 

Step­ping beyond the inner court­yard and hav­ing tak­ing in the majes­tic exte­ri­or, you’ll see the mosque open up into a gigan­tic prayer area – which can be off lim­its to non Mus­lims depend­ing on when you vis­it and to woman who have to use a sep­a­rate part of the mosque for pray­ing. When first enter­ing the first sight that will no doubt hit you is the stun­ning beau­ty of the inte­ri­or of the mosque – with the beau­ti­ful stained glass win­dows, the cen­tral dome and the beau­ti­ful­ly mar­ble carved Mihrab that points the way to Mec­ca light up by more than 200 dim­ly set can­dles and lights.  

Observ­ing fur­ther and you’ll notice the stun­ning cen­tral dome – which is held up by four ‘Ele­phant Feet’ mar­bled columns inside and which is the cen­tral point of the blue tiles out­side, and then the inte­ri­or out­ward­ly pro­jec­tion addi­tion­al domes – which all com­bine to make the stun­ning prayer space.  

The prayer space itself is dot­ted with a series of prayer mats – which are con­stant­ly being replaced – and which sit on top of a flow­ing regal red car­pet that cov­ers the whole of the inte­ri­or and you’ll also notice the stun­ning ceram­ic tiles – designed in true ottoman style that fea­ture carv­ings of fruit and flow­ers – and in par­tic­u­lar­ly tulips, which were said to be one of the favourite flow­ers of the Sul­tan – with some of the tiles being notice­ably worn away and lost over time.  

Fol­low­ing the tiles round you’ll notice the Sultan’s plat­form – from where he would also pray and observe the con­struc­tion of the mosque and you’ll come to the stun­ning Mihrab – which is the door that faces Mec­ca. Found on the famed Quibla wall, this door is con­sid­ered the most impor­tant part of the blue Mosque and is unique­ly carved out of mar­ble, with a series of inscrip­tions and Islam­ic text offer­ing loy­al­ty to the holy prophet Mohammed.  

From the Mihrab, you’ll also notice a pul­pit – which is where the Iman will deliv­er a ser­vice and which assists in the cor­rect direc­tion to offer Islam­ic prayer, and above the pul­pit and the Mihrab you’ll notice the stun­ning win­dows of the blue Mosque. Although once all Stain­less and hand craft­ed venet­ian win­dows – which have sad­ly been replaced by knock offs – the win­dows are still stun­ning and allow the sun­light to light up the inside of the blue mosque, and which also illu­mi­nate the inter­nal blue paint of the upper lev­els – cre­at­ing a mag­nif­i­cent and beau­ti­ful effect of blue light when step­ping with­in the mosque.  

This inter­nal blue light effect is com­ple­ment­ed fur­ther by the pres­ence of a series of chan­de­liers and dilm­ly lit lights that light up the inte­ri­or of the blue mosque cre­at­ing a unique and ambi­ence inside the holy site, and for those with a keen eye you’ll notice that the lights are cre­at­ed out of Ostrich Eggs – which is a spe­cif­ic design cre­ation to fend off spi­ders and pre­vent mass cob­webs form­ing.  

For those luck­i­ly enough to hear prayer with­in the Mosque you’ll also notice the unique acoustics with­in the inte­ri­or with the holy prayer site being specif­i­cal­ly designed to iso­late voic­es, that make for a tru­ly spe­cial and unique effect and adds fur­ther ambi­ence and scarci­ty to the incred­i­ble inte­ri­or of this unique won­der.  

Although sec­tions of the stun­ning Blue Mosque may be cor­nered off for non-Mus­lims there’s no doubt that the vision of Sul­tan Ahmet to build a mosque to rival Hagia Sophia and cre­ate an ever­last­ing and his­tor­i­cal mon­u­ment that would reflect the beau­ty and sig­nif­i­cance of both Ottoman Archi­tec­ture and show rev­er­ence to the Islam­ic cul­ture is ful­filled in the stun­ning blue Mosque – with the beau­ti­ful exte­ri­or and famous blue tiles com­bined with the tow­er­ing Minarets and holy palace inside mak­ing the Blue Mosque not just a jew­el of Istan­bul but one of the most holi­est and beau­ti­ful won­ders of the world.  

Dusk Viewing:

Along­side view­ing both stun­ning and majes­tic won­ders indi­vid­u­al­ly, we’d also advise mak­ing time to view them togeth­er and in par­tic­u­lar­ly at sun­set when the beau­ti­ful Turk­ish sun­set lights up both won­ders and in par­tic­u­lar makes the sun­ning blue tiles and minarets of the blue Mosque light up and glow cre­at­ing a stun­ning pho­to.  

While the won­ders of both Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque can be snapped at sun­set from the beau­ti­ful Sul­tanah­met Park which lies between the two sights and from where you can get great views of the won­ders at sun­set or at night when the won­ders light up, we’d also advise mak­ing time to take them both in from either an ariel view at the Sev­en Hills Hotel whose rooftop bar and view is sim­ply stun­ning of the whole Istan­bul sky­line or from a water view as you take the fer­ry over the Asian side of Istan­bul at sun­set for incred­i­ble pic­tures of the Istan­bul sky­line.  

Regard­less of how you chose to pho­to­graph the won­ders, tak­ing in the twin exte­ri­ors of Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque at sun­set is a sight not to be missed as the incred­i­ble exte­ri­ors of both sto­ried and beau­ti­ful sacred com­plex­es light up mak­ing for a stun­ning sight as you take in these twin won­ders of the world in all their glo­ry.  

How long to stay:  

We’d advise allo­cat­ing a full day to explore the won­ders of Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque – being sure to avoid vis­it­ing dur­ing prayer time and giv­ing your­self a few hours to explore each one – before pick­ing a spot to enjoy the mirac­u­lous sun­set  and the illu­mi­na­tion of both won­ders to cap off a great day explor­ing these two twin spec­tac­u­lar won­ders.  

Top Tip: 

With both the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque now being Mosque’s and reli­gious com­plex­es there’s a range of eti­quette pro­to­cols that need to be fol­lowed when vis­it­ing both won­ders:  

- First­ly be sure to fol­low the dress code – which includes wear­ing head­scarves, not wear­ing shorts or low cut t‑shirts when vis­it­ing.  

- Be sure to remove your shoes when vis­it­ing – you’ll be giv­en plas­tic bags in which to put them when you arrive – as shoes are com­plete­ly banned with­in the inte­ri­or of both com­plex­es.  

- Make sure you don’t take pho­tos with­in the inside of the inte­ri­or of the Blue Mosque – out­side both com­plex­es are fine and inside Hagia Sophia is cur­rent­ly per­mit­ted so long as you’re respect­ful.  

- Be aware that both com­plex­es are mosques so you can expect them to close sud­den­ly and pri­or­i­ty to be always giv­en to Mus­lims answer­ing the call to prayer – and when vis­it­ing be sure to be qui­et and respect­ful as dis­re­spect­ful behav­iour is not tol­er­at­ed.  

- Be aware that food and drink as well as bags are strict­ly for­bid­den so be sure to eat and drink before enter­ing.  

Final­ly on a more pos­i­tive note we’d advise as a top tip to time your vis­its around the call to prayer – first vis­it­ing the fas­ci­nat­ing Hagia Sophia and then head­ing to the sto­ried Blue Mosque – before ensur­ing you make time to catch the beau­ti­ful sun­set over the twin won­ders for a tru­ly mag­i­cal way to cap off your day at these twin won­ders.  

Cost:  

As they are both reli­gious com­plex­es, there is no charge to enter both the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque – and instead, vis­i­tors are asked for dona­tions to assist with the upkeep and preser­va­tion of the beau­ti­ful inte­ri­ors of both Mosques.  

For this who want a more detailed guide of the Hagia Sophia – you can expect to pay €15 for a walk­ing tour that will high­light the key parts of the stun­ning inte­ri­or – and may include a boat ride past it, but from a per­son­al stand­point we’d advise head­ing their by your­self so you can explore the beau­ty of Hagia Sophia at your own pace and leisure.  

So with both won­ders being free of charge your main costs will be in get­ting to Istan­bul and for the like­ly €5 for pub­lic trans­port to the won­der and for the cost of a drink when watch­ing the beau­ti­ful sun­set – so all in all we’d advise to bud­get €30 euros for a day at these two twin won­ders once you’ve got to Istan­bul – an absolute bar­gain to take in two of the most majes­tic won­ders of the world in a sin­gle day.  

Best Photo Spot: 

Begin­ning with the two won­ders, for Hagia Sophia you are cur­rent­ly fine to take pho­tos so long as your respect­ful – so we’d advise mak­ing sure grab a shot of the beau­ti­ful domes and minarets from out­side first and then tak­ing a pho­to inside on the upper gallery lev­el from where you can grab an incred­i­ble shot of the inte­ri­or of Hagia Sophia look­ing down on the mosa­ic floors below and cap­ture the beau­ty of the dome from the inte­ri­or.  

For the Blue Mosque pho­tos are off lim­its inside, so your photo’s need to be cen­tred on cap­tur­ing the incred­i­ble blue tiles and minarets from the Sul­tanah­met Park for a panoram­ic view of this incred­i­ble piece of Ottoman Archi­tec­ture – as well as when inside the inner court­yard – where you can grab stun­ning pho­tos of the exte­ri­or of the Blue Mosque cap­tur­ing the beau­ti­ful blue tiles, arch­es and minarets in all their glo­ry before ven­tur­ing inside.  

For a unique and beau­ti­ful pho­to of both won­ders – which we’d real­ly advise snap­ping at sun­set when the two com­plex­es light up and are at their most beau­ti­ful, you can head to the beau­ti­ful  Sul­tanah­met Park that offers incred­i­ble pho­tos of the two com­plex­es side by side against a series of beau­ti­ful foun­tains – or for a more unique and equal­ly beau­ti­ful pho­to we’d advise either hop­ping on the Asian fer­ry that tra­vers­es the Bospho­rus riv­er for a beau­ti­ful riv­er pho­to of the Istan­bul Sky­line that will allow you cap­ture these two won­ders from the  sea – or alter­na­tive­ly for a more relaxed pho­to we’d advise head­ing to the top of the Sev­en Hills Hotel in Sul­tanah­met where a rooftop bar with sweep­ing views over the while of Istan­bul and two won­ders await you and were you enjoy a nice relax­ing drink to cap off your day watch­ing the sun­set over the two incred­i­ble won­ders of the world that are the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque.