Blue Mosque, Istanbul, Turkey

The Blue Mosque is actually an incorrect name for this place of worship. Only western use this name. It's true name is Sultan Ahmed Mosque. From what I've gathered it's not a very historically significant mosque. It was the practice of the Ottomans that the building of the grand Mosque of their reign was funded by their war bounty. Sultan Ahmed did not engage in much war, so instead he used state funds to build his mosque. While this angered many with this, it's hard to argue with the results.

Westerns call it the blue Mosque based on the color of the minarets and the blue stained glass on the windows. The mosque itself is not overwhelmingly "blue." Still a beautiful mosque to have visited.Read more