Süleymaniye Mosque...

There are thousands of historic buildings all around Turkey and İstanbul is especially important in history of being the capital of two big empires. The strait in between the two sides of the city makes it the one and only city that sit between the two continents connecting them together. Just because of being on one of the most important water ways of the world, many nations and states wanted to have the city and during the long sieges they built many buildings that we now are lucky to have the chance to see them. On my previous post I've written on Great Bazaar that was the symbol of being the headquarters of the trade in the region and today I'll write on the Süleymaniye Mosque that is one of the most important symbols of the Ottoman Empire's architecture. It was built on the order of Sultan Süleyman (Süleyman the Magnificent) by the genious architect Mimar Sinan. The construction started in 1550 and the mosque was completed in 1558. The building's been ordered to be enormously big, to be seen from every part of the city and also by the see by being placed on one of the highest kills of the capital. The maximum height of the dome is 53 mteres (174 feet), the dome's diameter is 26 m. (85 feet) and both these were to represent the power, glory, prosperity and wealth of the Sultan who considered himself as the ruler of the world as being the ruler of the biggest empire of his time. With this big mosque he aimed to surpass both Solomon and the Dome of the Rock and Justinan and the Hagia Sophia that were the buildings that had the biggest domes known that were ever built. Anyone interested should google 'Süleymaniye Mosque' and will find vast information on the building. I'll share some photos of the mosque here, some I've shot and some I've found on net to show it on the landscape of the city. I hope you all will like them...