The Sultan Ahmed Mosque is called the “Blue” Mosque because of beautiful blue ceramic ties on the walls. It may be noted that there are at least 6 other mosques known as “The Blue Mosque”. But this is an amazing building. It was built between 1609 and 1616, during the rule of Ahmed I. He appointed his royal architect Sedefhar Mehmet Ağa, a pupil and senior assistant of the famous architect Mimar Sinan to be in charge of the construction. The interior of the mosque is lined with more than 20,000 handmade ceramic tiles, made at Iznik (the ancient Nicaea) in more than fifty different tulip designs. We’ll be making another visit here as part of our Islamic Art tour. But for now…