Süleymaniye Mosque

The Süleymaniye Mosque is in Istanbul, a big city in Türkiye.

A mosque is a building where Muslims gather to pray. This one sits on a hill and has many domes.

The Süleymaniye Mosque stands on a hill above the Golden Horn, in Istanbul. A mosque is a building where Muslims gather to pray. This one is the main building of a large group of buildings, called a complex, that Sinan designed for Sultan Süleyman.

UNESCO names the Süleymaniye, together with the 6th-century Hagia Sophia, among the masterpieces of Istanbul, and says it is part of the city's skyline.

UNESCO lists the Süleymaniye Mosque complex among the masterpieces of the Historic Areas of Istanbul and, with the Şehzade Mosque complex, as works of the chief architect Sinan that reflect the climax of Ottoman architecture in the 16th century. A University of Notre Dame library record describes the mosque as built on a hilltop site above the Golden Horn, on the grounds of the old palace.

The Süleymaniye quarter is one of the four areas of the World Heritage property, together with the Archaeological Park, the Zeyrek area and the land walls. UNESCO notes that the skyline of the Historic Peninsula, with Topkapı Palace, Hagia Sophia and the Süleymaniye, is preserved by planning measures.

Sinan also built schools and a hospital for the mosque's complex.

There was a kitchen that gave out food, a bath and an inn where travelers could stay.

The mosque was the main building of a whole group of buildings. The Notre Dame record lists four madrasas, which are colleges, a preparatory school, a medical college, a hospital, a caravanserai, which is an inn for travelers, a public kitchen and a bath. There were also two tombs, rows of shops and stables.

Around the complex is the Süleymaniye quarter, with old wooden houses. In 1985, ICOMOS reported that 525 of them were listed and protected.

UNESCO lists the complex's caravanserai, madrasa, medical school, library, bath building, hospice and imperial tombs, and judges the ensemble a supreme example of the religious complexes of the Ottoman period. The Notre Dame record gives a fuller list: the mosque and two mausoleums, four madrasas, a preparatory school, a medical college, a hospital, a caravanserai, a public kitchen and a bath, with shops, coffee-houses, stables and a park for caravans.

The surrounding quarter is valued for its vernacular timber housing, which UNESCO says gives exceptional evidence of the late Ottoman urban pattern; ICOMOS reported 525 listed and protected wooden houses there in 1985, and UNESCO notes that the houses were already recognized as vulnerable at the time of inscription.

In the photo, you can see the giant dome and four tall minarets.

There are lots of small domes, green trees and water with boats far away.

The photo, taken from high above in July 2022, shows the big central dome with a gold-colored tip, the half dome and smaller domes below it, and the courtyard ringed by little domes. Four minarets stand at the corners. Green trees surround the mosque, and beyond it you can see rooftops, water with boats and a bridge, and tall towers far away.

The first conservation plans for the Süleymaniye quarter, the Zeyrek area and the land walls were approved in 1979 and 1981, UNESCO says, and the city's municipality has been working to revive the quarter's rundown parts.

The aerial photo (16 July 2022) shows the prayer hall's central dome and finial, its half dome and stepped smaller domes, the arcaded courtyard with its row of small domes, all four minarets with their balconies, and trees around the precinct, with the city, a waterway with boats and a bridge, and high-rise towers on the far side.

UNESCO reports that the first conservation plans for Zeyrek, Süleymaniye and the land walls were approved in 1979 and 1981 (ICOMOS records protection of the Süleymaniye quarter in 1980 and 1981), that the Metropolitan Municipality is attempting to rehabilitate the area's degraded parts, and that reviving the Süleymaniye and Zeyrek quarters is a long process of cleaning, conservation and restoration.