MIHRIMAH SULTAN MOSQUE (MIHRIMAH SULTAN CAMII)

This complex, which initially consisted of a mosque, a medersa, an elementary school, a popular canteen, a hammam, a caravanserai, a warehouse, an observatory, a fountain and mausoleums, was completed between 1546 and 1548 by Sinan the Architect for Sultan Mihrimah, the daughter of Suleiman the Magnificent and wife of the great vizier Rüstem Paşa. Sinan thus laid the foundations for what would become the classical Ottoman architecture of that period. The mosque, the medersa, the elementary school, the fountain, the hammam and two mausoleums are still intact. The mosque, with its prayer room almost twice as high as it is deep, seems to defy the laws of gravity. The 4 tympanic walls, with 200 windows, give this building an exceptional luminosity. It is to this mosque, located in the centre of the complex, that Sinan the Architect applied for the first time a double portico for the prayers of the late. The interior peristyle is high and has five domes. The white marble ablutions fountain has 21 facets. Built on a rectangular plan, this mosque is topped by a large dome, supported on the sides and ends of the mihrab (niche) by half-domes, and reinforced by buttresses placed at the four outer corners. Small side parts covered with domes have been installed at the corners of the mihrab (pulpit) wall. The carvings and stained glass windows are late, unlike the ivory and mother-of-pearl inlays, the marbles and carved woods, which are period. An interesting decorative element is a sundial installed in 1769 on the wall of the west facade. The medersa, made entirely of ashlar and now used as a health centre, is a building built in accordance with the classical Ottoman architectural plan. The elementary school, located south of the mosque, consists of two rectangular spaces with domes. The fountain in front of the north entrance is made of ashlar and red and coloured marble. The double hammam with three canopies and its cells placed at the corners is built on the classic Ottoman hammam plan. The surrounding mausoleums were built after the complex was built. One of them is rectangular in shape, topped by a dome resting on an octagonal drum. Another has a dome decorated with remarkable calligraphy, supported by four marble columns.