Sevi Kocak
Tomb of Ottoman Sultan Mehmed I, Bursa, Turkey
Yeşil Türbe (Green Tomb) is a mausoleum of the fifth Ottoman Sultan, Mehmed I, in Bursa, Turkey. It was built by Mehmed's son and successor Murad II following the death of the sovereign in 1421. The architect, Hacı Ivaz Pasha designed the tomb and the Yeşil Mosque opposite to it.
Set amidst cypresses on top of the hill in Yeşil neighborhood in Bursa, the mausoleum stands higher than the rest of the complex.
It is built on a hexagonal* plan and crowned with a hemi-spherical dome. Inside, past the carved wooden doors, the royal catafalque stands on a platform at the center surrounded by seven other tombs. It is richly decorated with scriptures and flower designs painted in yellow, white and blue glazed tiles. The lower section of walls is lined with blue-green tiles, also used in tympana of windows on the interior.
*The hexagon is close in shape to the circle and is associated with the perfection of the circle. Therefore, hexagons and six pointed stars are very important symbols in Islam as the representations of Heaven and perfection.
Also, Ottoman Tombs have remained essentially as it was in the 9th century, a single dome on on top of a tall cylindrical or polygonal volume. Perhaps, as some writers have maintained, the form of the tomb is that building type closest to the domed tent of the original Turkic people of Central Asia. If so, it is a poignant statement that for over 1000 years, the place in which the royal figures of the Turkish empires were placed after their death was the simple structure of their culture's first ancestral home. (Source: Classic Constrution Details of Ottoman Monumental Architecture / Fatih ULUENGİN)
Tomb of Ottoman Sultan Mehmed I, Bursa, Turkey
Yeşil Türbe (Green Tomb) is a mausoleum of the fifth Ottoman Sultan, Mehmed I, in Bursa, Turkey. It was built by Mehmed's son and successor Murad II following the death of the sovereign in 1421. The architect, Hacı Ivaz Pasha designed the tomb and the Yeşil Mosque opposite to it.
Set amidst cypresses on top of the hill in Yeşil neighborhood in Bursa, the mausoleum stands higher than the rest of the complex.
It is built on a hexagonal* plan and crowned with a hemi-spherical dome. Inside, past the carved wooden doors, the royal catafalque stands on a platform at the center surrounded by seven other tombs. It is richly decorated with scriptures and flower designs painted in yellow, white and blue glazed tiles. The lower section of walls is lined with blue-green tiles, also used in tympana of windows on the interior.
*The hexagon is close in shape to the circle and is associated with the perfection of the circle. Therefore, hexagons and six pointed stars are very important symbols in Islam as the representations of Heaven and perfection.
Also, Ottoman Tombs have remained essentially as it was in the 9th century, a single dome on on top of a tall cylindrical or polygonal volume. Perhaps, as some writers have maintained, the form of the tomb is that building type closest to the domed tent of the original Turkic people of Central Asia. If so, it is a poignant statement that for over 1000 years, the place in which the royal figures of the Turkish empires were placed after their death was the simple structure of their culture's first ancestral home. (Source: Classic Constrution Details of Ottoman Monumental Architecture / Fatih ULUENGİN)