By Busra Nur Cakmak
ANKARA (AA) - Türkiye’s metropolitan Istanbul is also home to the country’s first six-minaret mosque, Blue Mosque.
The mosque, called Sultanahmet Camii in Turkish, was commissioned by Sultan Ahmet I in 1609-1617 to be built next to the Hagia Sophia mosque.
Built by Sedefkar Mehmet Aga, famous architect Mimar Sinan’s student, the mosque has a central dome with a height of 43 meters (141 feet) and 23.5 m (77 ft) in diameter.
Four semi-domes support the central dome from four directions.
The Blue Mosque was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage Site list in 1985.
The Sultanahmet Mosque is called the Blue Mosque by foreign tourists because of its tiles.