Hippodrome and Blue Mosque

So we walked to the Hippodrome where I was expecting some huge entertainment complex. In the old city of Constantinople, it was a gigantic stadium where there were running tracks around the "spine" for horses, etc. Instead, little remains. There are two Egyptian obelisks in the center though. One was under construction, but the other had Egyptian hieroglyphs down the side, saying something about the god, Amun-Ra. Cool fact: the emperor who built the Hippodrome in the 3rd century was Septimus Severus (it's a cool fact because I really enjoy his name.).

Egyptian Obelisk

Now we were onto the Blue Mosque! And oh my goodness, I cannot even describe how gorgeous it was. It was such an amazing structure. It is one of the most famous mosques in the world! Here are some quick, interesting facts so I don't bore you will all the details ;)

• The domes of the Blue Mosque are made of lead so birds won't land on them or poo on them. Birds' feet can't grip lead.
• Sultan Ahmet I ordered it to be built. It took 7 years. He died a year after it was completed.
• There are six minarets, which prompted hostility from people, because the mosque at Mecca had six. It was considered a sacrilegious architectural attempt to rival the mosque in Mecca. So another minaret was added to the Mecca mosque (which is the most holy of all mosques).
• Ahmet ordered that the mosque have "altin" minarets, meaning "gold" but the architect thought he said "alti" which means "six". So really, Ahmet I wasn't trying to rival Mecca's mosque!

Standing in the courtyard of the Blue Mosque

Close-up of the Blue Mosque domes

The interior of the mosque was stunning as well. The colours don't show up as well in my pictures, but it is evident why the Blue Mosque has that name: the Iznik tiles are mainly a brilliant blue. There were over 20 million hand crafted and painted just for this mosque! Before we entered, we had to remove our shoes and cover our heads with our scarves, but then we were welcome to go in and pray and take a look around before heading off to our next destination.

Interior of the Blue Mosque

You can tell how intricately detailed everything is. And how blue!

This is about 3pm, so there were still two hours left of the tour, two more sites to visit, plus our evening. However, I just got in from a lovely dinner with friends here in Istanbul and it is past midnight. I need to be up at 7:15 tomorrow for a tour of the Bosphorus, so I will continue to tell you about my adventures today when I get back tomorrow. Be prepared for more pictures! "İyi uykular"  or "good night" in Turkish!