As you can see from this picture of the Blue Mosque, the Turkish people do worship here. This is a locals entrance to the mosque, taken at the call to mid-day prayer. Muslims pray five a time a day, in fact.at the center of this picture is the water fountain where the Muslims perform their cleansing rituals before prayer.
The inside of the Blue Mosque. Once prayer is complete, the mosque is opened to non-muslims. As this is a place of worship, men and women are asked to cover the bodies, and I had brought along a scarf to cover my hair. A mosque is so much different than a church or a cathedral. There is no furniture inside. Instead, there is a large carpet with many squares for indivudal prayer. Muslims pray on their knees, and face mecca when doing so. Jason and I were surprised by how sparse the room was, but by how elaborate the building was. Very different from all the Christian churches we were seeing on our travels through Europe.
He's not particularly smiling, because we are feeling a bit silly for taking pictures! (As non-Muslims we were not allowed to enter the area where the Muslims pray, and so there is a little fence behind Jason that we could not pass.
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