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When we arrived at the Istanbul airport late in
December, the cold bitter weather welcomed us.
Experiencing Gauteng winter was no different,
however, we were anticipating the snow. The
drive to the hotel in the Old City is picturesque
with the view of the scenic Bosphorous dividing
the city into its Asian and Europeans part.
Stepping out of the hotel to take our first stroll
into the old city, we decided to visit the largest
mosque in Turkey, which we were told was
walking distance. Bedazzled by the architecture of
mosques and shops, we manoeuvred our way
through the city. On entering the Blue Mosque
(called Sultanhmet Mosque), I was awed by the
beautiful Turkish architecture inside. The mosque
is called the blue mosque because of the amazing
blue tiles surrounding the huge walls of the
interior design of the mosque. The mosque was
built during the Rule of Sultan Ahmed 1 between
1609 and 1616. After the peace of Zsitvatorok
(1606),
Sultan Ahmed 1 requested to appoint his
royal architect Sedefhar Mehmet, who
built the six-minaret mosque on the site
of the palace of the Byzantine emperors.
It is here that we returned to pray again,
but this time it was our Jummah Salaah.
If we had not arrived early, it would have
been impossible for us to get a nice spot
in this popular Mosque. Along the route
to the mosque, we were enticed by the
vendors who sold lovely bagels with
chocolate filling. The Blue mosque stands
next to another famous tourist site called
the Hagi Sophia Mosque. In 1453,
Constantinople was conquered by the
Ottoman Empire under Mehmed the
Conqueror, who ordered that the
Orthodox church be converted into a
mosque.