The Sultan Ahmed Mosque, known to almost everyone as the Blue Mosque, was completed in 1616 for a sultan who was still in his twenties. Its six minarets caused an argument at the time, since Mecca had the same number, and a seventh was eventually added there to settle it.
The name comes from the interior: more than twenty thousand İznik tiles line the upper walls, and the blue in them shifts depending on where the light is coming from. Over two hundred stained-glass windows do the rest of the work.
Entry is free. The mosque closes to visitors during the five daily prayers and for about ninety minutes at Friday midday. Shoulders and knees covered; women are given a scarf at the door.
From The Soul Hotel walk down to Karaköy and take the T1 tram across the Galata Bridge to Sultanahmet — around twenty-five minutes door to door.