Space Most Sublime

Istanbul's grand mosques all looked similar from the outside: grey brick topped by a slightly-flattened semicircular main dome, supported by a pyramid of semidomes, flanked by one or more pairs of minarets. They all seemed to take after the Ayasofya. Actually, they looked rather similar on the inside, too---not entirely the same, though. The most strikingly different feature in the interior of the Blue Mosque was the set of four elephantine pillars that held up the main dome. Those were truly huge---far thicker than an elephant's feet, really---and divided the interior space into portions of quite quotidian dimensions. The most unique feature of the interior of the Ayasofya, on the other hand, was the immense, soaring sense of spaciousness. The vast main dome, with its gilded calligraphic ciphers is not directly supported by any pillars, large or small; instead a complex structure of secondary semidomes directs the stress away towards the walls and buttresses. A ring of windows just below the dome bathes the interior with light from above, adding to the sense of space.

The resulting sense of spaciousness was simply awe-inspiring. It might have been an enclosed space, but it felt just as open and unbounded as a vast plaza. It was grand, mystical, sublime. It was truly a piece of art.