Description of the attraction
One of the most prominent architectural masterpieces of Islamic culture is the Selimiye Mosque. This temple complex includes a school, library, hospital, baths, madrasah, clock room, several shops. The structure was built in 1568-1574 by the famous architect Sinan, who considered this mosque his best work. When this architectural masterpiece was being built, the architect was about 90 years old.
Mimar (which means "builder") Sinan is one of the most famous architects of the Muslim world, whose name is associated with an unprecedented heyday of the architecture of the Ottoman Empire. He designed more than three hundred buildings, architectural ensembles and religious buildings erected in Turkey, Syria, Bosnia, and Crimea. Sinan was born in a village in Asia Minor and was recruited in his youth. The future architect was sent to Istanbul and became a janissary (the Sultan's personal bodyguard, recruited from non-Muslims). In one of the campaigns of Suleiman the Magnificent in Moldova, Sinan supervised the construction of a bridge over the Prut River. The bridge was built in thirteen days and the Sultan liked it very much. Thereafter, Sinan became the chief imperial architect and held this position for about fifty years. As a military engineer, he built underground storerooms and bridges, as an architect - palaces, mosques, public baths and caravanserais. The most interesting works were erected by him in the second half of his life.
The Selimiye Mosque was built by order of Selim, the son of Sultan Suleiman and his wife Roksolana. Unlike his parents, Selim was not attractive in appearance - obese, short, with a red, puffy face. He did not possess the talents of a statesman or a warrior. Selim was lazy, very licentious and indifferent to everything except his own pleasures. The love of alcohol was his strongest passion. He entrusted all state affairs to the Grand Vizier Sokol. It should be noted that this least prominent of the Ottoman sultans composed poetry himself, imitating Persian authors. Death overtook the Sultan in the bath, when he alone drank a bottle of wine, slipped and fell, hitting his head on marble slabs.
During the construction of the mosque, Selimiye Sinan created a unique octagonal vault support system, which consists of eight reliable columns. The octahedron made it possible to make them not very massive and, by moving them to the wall, to clear the central space of the mosque. Small semi-domes, which alternate with piers, are almost invisible from the outside. Eight buttresses are very clearly visible on the façade, giving a circular appearance to the entire structure. At the first inspection, you may not notice the rectangular layout of the mosque, which is masked by original architectural solutions.
In the very center of the mosque, there is a magnificent fountain covered with an interesting carved roof, quite rare for a religious building of those times. Four minarets, about eighty meters high, are installed at the corners of the mosque. They are almost twice the height of the central dome and are the second highest in the world after the minarets of Mecca. Inside the minarets there are beautiful and isolated spiral staircases, along which one can climb onto the balconies (there are three of them at each minaret).
Light enters the premises of the mosque through 24 windows located in the arches. The interior of the building is elaborately decorated with purple marble, wood carvings and calligraphy. In the prayer hall, there are five domes above six marble columns. In addition, it is decorated with stained glass windows and marble carvings. The courtyard is decorated with soft Edirnean red sandstone. Around the mihrab and in the Sultan's gallery to the left of it, there are beautiful Iznik tiles.
The Selimiye Mosque, built of cut stone, is located on a small hill. Surrounded by four tall minarets directed into the sky, it dominates all city buildings and is perfectly visible from everywhere. The entrance to the mosque is also allowed for non-Muslims. The Selimiye Mosque is one of the main attractions not only in Edirne, but throughout Turkey. Not so long ago, the building was honored to be included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.
