The Blue Mosque

The Blue Mosque stood for almost 400 years until they opened the Sabanci Merkez Mosque in the east of the country in 1998, the only one in Turkey with six minarets. There is a story circulating about this that is very interesting but not true. Sultan Ahmed was allegedly criticized for trying to surpass the most sacred mosque in the Islamic world, Masjid-al-Haram in Mecca, with his grandiose building. As a response, it is said that he had a seventh minaret built for the mosque in Mecca, elegantly avoiding criticism. In reality, Masjid-al-Haram had seven minarets for at least a century before they even began constructing the Blue Mosque.