Istanbul is one of the most historical city in the world. Because of its geographical place, it's place where different kinds of culture have lived there. There are lots of places where you should visit before dying. The Blue Mosque is one of the most prominent landmarks of Istanbul, especially when viewed from Asian shore of the Sea of Marmara. It is very impressive with its beautiful domes and semi domes, nice courtyards and six minarets. This is the mosque that most visitors see first and want see most. In many cases it's the only mosque that they see. The Blue Mosque is one of the greatest structures in the world because it's not like the classical mosques and has a great atmosphere.
Built on the orders of Sultan Ahmet and still bearing his name, the Blue Mosque of Sultan Ahmet. Sultan Ahmet ordered Architect Mehmed Aga to begin construction in 1609 and the whole complex was completed in 1616. The location of the mosque is just opposite of the Church of Aya Sophia as it is trying to compete with it and on the other hand architect Mehmet Aga wanted to surpass his master Sinan. However, Architect Mehmed wasn't able to construct a dome as big as Aya Sophia's. Instead, he made the mosque splendid by the perfect proportion of domes and semi domes as well as the splendid six minarets. .
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According to an interesting story of the mosque, Sultan Ahmet wanted to have a minaret made of gold which means "altÝn" in Turkish. The architect misunderstood it as "altÝ" which means "six" in English. So after finishing the mosque, the architect was afraid about whether his head will be cut off or not. However, Sultan Ahmed liked the minarets very much. Prior to that time, no sultan had a mosque with 6 minarets which was a great honor for him because of this mosque he will be remembered forever. I think that both Sultan Ahmet and Mehmet Aga were lucky people. Because of this small misunderstanding this extraordinary structure was build.