Blue Mosque – Istanbul, Turkey

If you get to the Blue Mosque very early in the morning, you can be in the first batch of people to enter. The Blue Mosque (which is called Sultanahmet Camii by locals) was built in the early 1600s during the reign of Ahmed I. The Ottoman mosque is known as the Blue Mosque because of the thousands and thousands of blue Iznik tiles on the walls. As is the case with many mosques, it has the founder’s (Ahmed’s) tomb, a madrasa (school) and a hospice inside its grounds.
To go into the mosque you must take off your shoes (so bring a bag), and if you are female you have to wear a head covering (they will lend you one for free, but who knows how often they are washed).  Generally, I find it helpful to bring a shawl with me so that I have something to put over my head in Islamic countries.