Sultanahmet & Hagia Sophia

When a sultan says “altın minare”, golden minaret, what does the architect hear? Legend has it that Sultan Ahmed I wanted his mosque’s minarets to be made of gold, while his architect, Sedefkâr Mehmed Ağa, understood the order as “altı minare”: six minarets… Given the state of the treasury in those days, there are some who think the misunderstanding was not entirely accidental. Which is true, no one knows; but what we do know is that the Blue Mosque, with its six minarets, still signs its name across the city’s skyline today.