2013 Trip to Istanbul, Turkey - Sultan Ahmed (Blue) Mosque

Morning, looking southeast from our hotel terrace, I caught those epic rays again, showering the Sultan Ahmed mosque. Caption - 031

This side of the mosque faces East roughly, a garden, fountain and eventually Hagia Sophia. - 030b

As you might image, muslims from other parts of Turkey and the world come to visit and pray at this mosque. This is the courtyard at the entrance. Caption - 030a

The East-facing wall and focus of prayer. These photos were shot with the iPhone and aren't quite as sharp as those I took with the Nikon. But the color is accurate. Caption - 032

The Bryzantine application of the dome I think is singularly harmonious and reduces even the large structures to a human scale Caption - 033

The calligraphy and the blue of the tiles, extraordinary. Caption - 034

It was common to see these low hanging lights, which with the richly beautiful carpet, give even this very large mosque an intimate feel Caption - 035

This photo inside the mosque I did take with the Nikon. Because super-wide angle lens capture way more that the, typically 50 degree peripheral vision of the human eye, you sometimes NEED distortion to convey scale. Caption - 036

The entire floor of the mosque is covered with this carpet, which contrasts with the blond stone and marble, and the blue of the tiles. Caption - 037

The Hagia Sophia and Sultan Ahmed Mosque are about a football field apart, with a garden and large fountain between them.. The mosque is especially spectacular at night and from the Bospherus or high points like the Gelata Tower. Caption - 030

The Sultan Ahmed Mosque is beautiful, but there is a smaller one that most people might walk past, as it's entrances is in an unremarkable archway opening to simple stone stairs. But once inside, you find this... walls beautifully tiled from bottom to top... Caption - 030c

...and geometric perfection. This is the Rustem Pasha Mosque. Caption - 030d

...Interesting light in an entry ways to Rustem Pasha. Caption - 030e

Thedra's nightly ritual was to comb the guide book for interesting places to visit. That's how we found out about the Roman-era Basilica Cistern, with the delightful and pungent smell of summer rain. Caption - 050

- Spice Market Street Scenes - Hagia Sophia - Sultan Ahmed (Blue) Mosque -

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