The Sultan Ahmed Mosque stands in the Fatih district of Istanbul, surrounded by many historic sites dating from the Byzantine and Ottoman periods
The mosque lies south of Hagia Sophia and east of the old Byzantine hippodrome. A high wall surrounds it on three sides, and the wall has five gates, three of them leading to the mosque courtyard and two to the prayer hall.
The courtyard consists of a large open space with a hexagonal ablution fountain at its centre, carried on six columns; the largest of the gates leading into the courtyard shows the influence of Persian art.
The Sultan Ahmed Mosque is one of the most prominent historic landmarks in the city of Istanbul. It was built by Sultan Ahmed I, who came to power in 1603 AD and set out to complete what the sultans before him had begun by building mosques and towers on the hills of Istanbul.
The Sultan Ahmed Mosque has six minarets carrying 16 balconies, and the architects chose this number as a reference to Sultan Ahmed's place in the order of succession to the throne.
In the north-eastern corner of the mosque's outer courtyard stands the tomb of Sultan Ahmed.
Another of the most important features that set the Sultan Ahmed Mosque apart from other Ottoman mosques is that it was the first mosque with a passage running from the sultan's palace to the loge where the sultan and his retinue prayed, known as the hünkar mahfili.