What you'll hear inside Blue Mosque:

• 1
  Central Dome and Semi-domes

  The Blue Mosque's central dome — 23.5 m wide and 43 m high, resting on four great pillars — is ringed by cascading semi-domes that create the airy, weightless feel of classical Ottoman architecture.

• 2
  Minarets (Six)

  The six minarets are the most distinctive feature of Sultan Ahmed Mosque's skyline.

• 3
  Mihrab

  The mihrab of the Blue Mosque, carved in white marble with a muqarnas niche, marks the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca.

• 4
  Minbar

  The minbar is the pulpit from which the khatib delivers sermons during Friday prayers and religious festivals.

• 5
  Hünkâr Mahfil (Sultan's Lodge)

  The Hünkâr Mahfil is the sultan's private royal loge in the mosque's south-east corner, comprising a raised platform on ten marble columns, a gallery, and two reserved chambers with access to the…

• 6
  Iznik Tiles

  Over 21,000 handcrafted İznik tiles line the mosque's interior walls, featuring more than fifty designs of tulips, cypresses, flowers and fruit in shades of blue, green, red, black and turquoise.

• 7
  Courtyard with Shadirvan

  The sahn, or courtyard, lies to the north-west of the Blue Mosque and is nearly as large as the prayer hall itself.

• 8
  Imaret (Public Kitchen)

  The Imaret was a public kitchen attached to the Sultanahmet complex in Istanbul, serving as a food distribution centre.