Istanbul’s extraordinary Ottoman mosques

Built on the orders of Sultan Ahmet I (1603–17) to rival the Hagia Sophia in grandeur and beauty – and completed in 1616, one year before his death – the Blue Mosque (aka Sultan Ahmed Mosque) is considered one of the last great mosques of the classical period, combining Byzantine elements with traditional Islamic architecture.

With six slender minarets and a beautiful dome, it dominates Istanbul’s skyline. The interior is decorated with 21,000 hand-painted (mostly blue) tiles and stunning stained-glass windows.

The whole area around the Blue Mosque was once the site of the Byzantine emperors’ Great Palace. Some of the palace’s recently discovered, lavish floor mosaics, dating from AD 450-550, are on display at the Great Palace Mosaic Museum.

A masterpiece of Byzantine architecture, this world-renowned 6th-century marvel encapsulates the essence of the lost Ottoman Empire in stone.

With a great dome and marble columns adorned with frescoes and glittering gold mosaics, the Church of the ‘Holy Wisdom’ was the last major creation of classical antiquity and the centre of the Byzantine world for 1,000 years. Initially a cathedral, then a mosque, it’s now a museum as well as a functioning mosque – and a must-see in Istanbul.

With its 53m-high dome and trademark slender minarets, this is Istanbul’s grandest mosque and a Byzantine beauty.

Modelled on the Hagia Sophia and designed by the greatest Ottoman architect, Mimar Sinan, it was built in 1558 for the most powerful of Ottoman sultans, Suleyman I, also known as ‘The Magnificent’, and houses the mausoleums of both the sultan and Mimar Sinan.