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Masirah to Muscat road trip, but decided to take in a few sights on the way.
Final stop and the impressive Mosque in the town of Fanja.
Sehzade Mosque was, for me, the nicest mosque in Istanbul, especially from a photographic point of view. Hagia Sophia and Sultan Ahmet Mosque are the two most-famous mosques in town and, as such, almost always packed with visitors. Plenty of others (Suleymaniye Mosque, for example) are quite beautiful and worth a visit, but also can be crowded. Beyazit Mosque was very nice, and not crowded at all. Lastly (for this trip), Sehzade Mosque was also practically empty -- fewer than 10 people besides me -- and with its symmetry, it's photographically delightful.
The history of this mosque, though, is somewhat sad. Like many other mosques in Istanbul, it's from the 16th century. In particular, this one was built from 1543-48. What happened in 1543 to create this mosque?
The sultan at the time, Suleyman the Magnificent, had a favorite son named Sehzade Mehmed. This wasn't his oldest son, but Sehzade was his oldest son by his legal wife, which put him in line to be the next sultan.
Sehzade was born in 1521. He was a warrior, and fought as far away as Hungary. In late 1543, while returning from a successful military campaign in Hungary, Sehzade died unexpectedly (consensus opinion is that he died of smallpox).
A distraught Suleyman had this mosque built to honor his son, and employed imperial architect Mimar Sinan to design and build it.
The general plan is similar to nearby Beyazit Mosque in that there's a courtyard/forecourt that is enclosed and roughly the same size as the mosque itself. This mosque, too, has a large central dome, but it's flanked by four half domes. The half domes are what enhance the symmetry and photographic lines on the interior.
There are five tombs behind this mosque (that I did not have a chance to see), one of which contains the grave of Sehzade Mehmed.
This mosque is about halfway between Fatih Mosque and Beyazit Mosque, and Suleymane Mosque is also a short walk away, but not on the same line.
Though I've obviously seen this mosque, I would probably make a point to see it again on a return visit to Istanbul. It's beautiful.
At a service stop somewhere on the highway from Riyadh to Khamis Mushayt. The litter in this country is unbelievable. The Saudis don't seem to regard the outside environment as a part of their enjoyment, their responsibility.
Istanbul's imperial Mosque of Sultan Ahmet I (Sultan Ahmet Camii) is called the Blue Mosque because of its interior tiles, mostly on the upper level and difficult to see unless you're right up there with them.
The mosque (built 1603-17) is the masterwork of Ottoman architect Sedefkâr Mehmet Ağa. It's built on the site of the Great Palace of Byzantium, on the southeastern side of the Hippodrome (map).
With its six minarets and a great cascade of domes, the mosque is a worthy sibling to Ayasofya (Hagia Sophia) just a few minutes' stroll to the north.
The Mosque of Sultan Said bin Taimur (commonly known as Said bin Taimur Mosque -جامع السلطان سعيد بن تيمور) is one of the most breathtaking architectural landmarks in Oman and one of the most significant mosques built in Oman in recent times. This mosque was constructed through the private financing of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said in memory of his late father Sultan Said bin Taimur and it was first opened in the year 1999.
This mosque was the only one in Mostar to not lose a minaret during the Bosnian War. That's because the shell aimed for the mosque was blocked by a huge tree.
Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount in Old Jerusalem. We were fortunate enough to get inside Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third most holy site in Sunni Islam. I also got to stick some prayers in the Wailing Wall just a few steps away.
I went exploring on Sunday to check out a few mosques that are tucked away in hidden corners of the city. Most were not exciting, but this little mosque was a real gem. I am on a quest to check out as many mosques as possible in an effort to get a handle on photographing these beauties. I find them extremely difficult to shoot unless I focus on only one small detail such as prayer beads or a Koran and those really don't show the individual personality of these mosques. You can find another version (in color) in the comments.
Merzifonlı Kara Mustafa Paşa Camii, Sirkeci, Istanbul, Turkey
The Sultan Ahmed Mosque, Blue Mosque or, in Turkish, Sultanahmet Camii is one of the great masterpieces of Islamic architecture.
Built between 1609 and 1616, the architect was given a mandate to spare no expense in creating the most magnificent and beautiful place of Islamic worship in the world. The mosque was deliberately sited to face Hagia Sophia, to demonstrate that Ottoman and Islamic architects and builders could rival anything their Christian predecessors had created. The two buildings together comprise a unique historical and architectural precinct.
An image made using three bracketed exposures (handheld) combined and tonemapped using Photomatix Pro software, to produce a single High Dynamic Range image. The image was then tweaked some more in Photoshop CS.