As a city which is over 90 percent Muslim, Istanbul offers a good opportunity to better understand Islam. Visitors are welcome to visit mosques, and in doing so, better understand a religion that about two billion people practice.

The Blue Mosque was the 17th-century triumph of Sultan Ahmet I. Architecturally, with its six minarets, it rivaled the Great Mosque in Mecca—the holiest in all of Islam. Its grand courtyard welcomes the crowd that gathers for worship. As with all mosques, you park your shoes at the door and women cover their heads. If you don’t have a scarf, you’ll find loaners at the door.

Countless beautiful tiles fill the interior with exquisite floral and geometric motifs. It’s nicknamed the “Blue Mosque” because of its blue tiles. Blue is a popular color in Turkey. It impressed early French visitors enough for them to call it “the color of the Turks,” or “turquoise.”

While churches portray people like this, Muslims believe the portrayal of people in places of worship draws attention away from worshipping Allah as the one God. In mosques, rather than saints and prophets, you’ll see geometrical designs and calligraphy. This explains why, historically, the Muslim world excelled at non-figurative art, while artists from Christian Europe focused on painting and sculpting the human form.

Artful Arabic calligraphy generally shows excerpts from the Quran and quotes from Muhammad. As a church would have Jesus and God front and center, in a mosque, elaborate medallions high above the prayer niche read “Muhammad” and “Allah.”

Large ceremonial candles flank the mihrab—that’s the niche that points southeast to Mecca, in Saudi Arabia, where Muslims face when they worship.

Like churches have bell towers, mosques have minarets. According to Muslim tradition, the imam, or prayer leader, would climb to the top of a minaret to call the faithful to prayer.

These days, the prayer leader still performs the call to prayer live, but rather than climbing the minaret, it’s amplified by loudspeakers.

Five times a day, the message is always the same: “Allahu Akbar…God is great, witness there is only one God. Muhammad is His Prophet. Come join the prayer. Come join the salvation.” When this happens, practicing Muslims drop into a mosque, face Mecca, and pray. Then, after a short service praising God, workaday life resumes.

Here, gathered in a park between two beloved mosques, people reflect on the meaning of Ramadan as they wait to break their fast. Fasting daily for a month each year during Ramadan is one of the five pillars of Islam. From sunup to sundown for 30 days: no eating, drinking, or smoking. It’s all about self-control. Muhammad taught that loosening ties to the material world makes it easier to enter into eternity…as if unchained.

It’s an opportunity to share a sacred moment with family and community. They’re primed, meals ready, awaiting the call to prayer initiated by the setting of the sun. It’s scenes like this, so similar to family holidays of my own, that remind me why I travel: to experience cultures different than my own, only to find out how similar we are.