I’m maxxed out. I have completely exceeded my allotment for the week – though I’ve only been on the ground about five hours. Calories. Expenses. You name it; I’m over budget. Now remember – I just got checked into my hotel around 4:30 or so this afternoon… And it has been a MARATHON ever since. I guess the good news is – the pressure is off. If I don’t buy another thing, I come home happy. Rug? (check.) Baklava? (check-check.) Party in the Hippodrome with 100,000 of my newest friends? (check-check-check-check-check.) I guess I’m getting ahead of myself, let’s start from the beginning.

Flights were beautiful… not a blip and all luggage arrived. Checked into the hotel and immediately headed off on foot. All you had to do was look to the sky and keep working your way toward the Blue Mosque. Remember how I said earlier that Istanbul was built on seven hills? Well, that must have been an error. It’s more like seven zillion hills. I climbed and I climbed. Some old man with a cane blew past me and I had no pride… didn’t even try to keep up with him.

Anyway, I found my way easy enough through twisty cobblestone streets and hill after hill. I met a few stray kitties along the way and stopped to feed them. (An internet tip said stray cats are everywhere and the locals think it’s cute when you carry a packet of Tender Vittles from home to share with the felines. Best seventy-five cents I ever spent… I had little kids coming over asking me for some cat food so THEY could feed the cats. I know, I know… can’t go anywhere without making a scene…)


So the Blue Mosque is as regal as ever. It’s easily one of the most prominent landmarks of Istanbul. It is very impressive with beautiful domes and courtyards, and six slender minarets. For those unfamiliar with what a minaret is, it’s the pointed towers that you see surrounding the mosques – and this is where the Muslim call to prayer is broadcast from five times each day. Sultan Ahmet I commissioned the Blue Mosque (known locally as the Sultanahmet Mosque) in the early 1600s and it is the second largest mosque in the world behind the one at Mecca.

The story is that Sultan Ahmet wanted to have a mosque with minarets made of gold (which is “altin” in Turkish) but the architect misunderstood him as “alti” (which means six in English) – so he got six minarets instead of GOLD ones. Tragedy, I know… Rumor has it that the Blue Mosque had one minaret more than the Grand Mosque in Mecca and Muslims considered it disrespectful… so the Sultan had to issue an order to build a new minaret for the Mecca mosque to reestablish the peace.

So why is it called the BLUE Mosque… because of all the blue tiles in it! Here’s another factoid for trivia buffs: the word turquoise actually comes from Turkey, where this precious stone is found and highly prized. Over the centuries, Turks have very often given gifts made from this blue stone, so in time it came to be known as turquoise. I always thought it came from the American Southwest (and of course that is one of the other places it is found); but its name comes from Turkey.

Unlike the Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque – although historic – is still an operating mosque. Because of that, the women had to cover their head, shoulders, and legs out of respect for the Islamic culture. And because it is still a functioning mosque, we had to take off our shoes so as not to dirty the carpeted floors. Friday is the holy day for Muslims and over 2,000 people congregate at the Sultanahmet Mosque to pray.

The main dome of the mosque is supported by four huge pillars known as Elephant’s Feet. These pillars are made of solid marble with a circumference of 83 feet and a diameter of almost 27 feet; the pillars are 117 feet tall to support the dome. To put things in perspective, four 6’ tall men could lie on the floor head to toe and still not be as wide as these massive columns are. I think maybe they should have called them ‘Dinosaur Feet’ – but what do I know?! The pillars are so sturdy that the Blue Mosque did not suffer damage during Turkey’s massive earthquakes like the Hagia Sophia did.