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Central Sofia, Bulgaria lies on top of the ruins of the important Roman/Byzantine city of Serdica. There are several excavations such as this in central Sophia including in the underground passages to the subway. The Banya Bashi Mosque is an example of Ottoman architecture; this region was part of the Ottoman Empire for centuries after the fall of Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire.
The Mihrimah Sultan Mosque is an Ottoman mosque located in the Edirnekapı neighborhood near the Byzantine land walls of Istanbul, Turkey. Located on the peak of the Sixth Hill near the highest point of the city, the mosque is a prominent landmark in Istanbul.
The Mihrimah Sultan Mosque was designed by Mimar Sinan ("Sinan the Architect") for the favorite daughter of Suleiman the Magnificent, Princess Mihrimah. Its building took place from 1562 to 1565. The complex has been severely damaged by earthquakes several times (including 1719, 1766, 1814 and 1894), and although efforts were made to restore the mosque, its attendant buildings received less attention. The dome was further damaged during 1999 İzmit earthquake, and required restoration, along with the upper half of the minaret.
The interior is a cube under a dome 20 m in diameter and 37 m high. On the north and south sides, triple arcades supported by granite columns open onto side aisles with galleries above, each with three domed bays. A vast amount of surface area is covered by windows, making the mosque one of the brightest lit of any of Sinan's works. Some of the windows contain stained glass.The interior stencil decorations are all modern. However, the mimbar in carved white marble is from the original construction.
As built, the Mihrimah Sultan Mosque had a külliye which included (besides madrasah) a double hamman, türbe and a low row of shops under the terrace upon which the mosque was built, whose rents were intended to financially support the mosque complex.
The Yeni Valide Mosque (Turkish: Yeni Valide Camii) is an 18th-century Ottoman mosque in the Üsküdar district of Istanbul. It was built in 1708-10.
The building is typical of the Classical Ottoman period and of the "Sinan School" of Ottoman religious architecture. It is located in the Üsküdar neighborhood of Istanbul. The main part of the building is square-shaped and covered with a flattened main dome and four half domes. The mosque has two minarets with two balconies each.
Outside runs the extremely busy street of Hakimiyeti Milliye Caddesi.
Built in the 13th century to provide education in the study of hadiths (saying of the Prophet).
From the late 12th century for over a hundred years Konya, ancient Iconium was the capital of the Empire of the Muslim Selcuks, a distinct Turkish tribe. The beautiful Selcuk buildings (bridges, caravansaries, mosques, medreses and tombs) in Kayseri, Sivas, Nigde, Dicrigi, Malatya and Konya date from these centuries. Selcuk sultan Alaaddin Keykubad ruled from 1220 to 1237 at the height of this Empire.
The tiled pavilion in the grounds of the Topkapi - I had never understood from the photos I had seen how much the ground falls off behind the building - so that it undoubtely catches great breezes. It was so cold inside in April that the guard had a heater!
The Blue Mosque (Called Sultanahmet Camii in Turkish) is an historical mosque in Istanbul. The mosque is known as the Blue Mosque because of blue tiles surrounding the walls of interior design.
Animals (camels...) used to rest where there are tables now..
İpek yolu üzerinde Cinci Han (1645 yılında yapılmış)
Şimdi masa olan yerlerde bir zamanlar hayvanlar dinleniyordu..
#147 June 6,2009
H.P: 128
Inside the Baghdad Kiosk in the Topkapı Palace.
I hope the magnificence of this will compensate for the bad quality.Not easy for me to get good results when there is not sufficient light.Not easy with my camera..not easy with my lack of knowledge..
Light was particularly difficult to obtain here but the interior of this beautiful and tiny mosque was so overwhelming that I really had to share this architectural gem with you. Tucked away in the center of Tetovo, a town not particularly known for its beautiful buildings, this mosque is worth a detour from and to almost anywhere in the region.
Šarena Džamija, (Macedonian: Шарена Џамија; Albanian: Xhamia e Pashës; Turkish: Alaca Cami) meaning Decorated Mosque in English, is a mosque located near the Pena River in Tetovo, Macedonia. The mosque [also referred to as the Painted or Colored Mosque in English] was originally built in 1438 and later rebuilt in 1833 by Abdurrahman Pasha.
The Šarena Džamija was originally built in 1438. The architect behind the Šarena Džamija was Isak Bey. Most mosques of the time had sultans, beys or pashas financing their constructions, but the Šarena Džamija, however, was financed by two sisters from Tetovo. As with many mosques, a hammam was built nearby across the river. The site used to include an Inn as well as a bathhouse on the other side of the river. The current courtyard of the Šarena Džamija is filled with many flowers, a fountain, and a Türbe. The octagonal "türbe" houses the resting places of Hurshida and Mensure, the two sisters who financed the construction of the mosque in 1438. Abdurrahman Pasha, a great enthusiast of art who was fond of Tetovo, reconstructed the Šarena Džamija in 1833. In 1991, the Islamic Community in Tetovo built walls around the mosque in the typical classical Ottoman style. In 2010, a renovation of the exterior paintings was completed and, with a €94,700 grant from the United States State Department, the façade will be reconstructed and preserved in 2011.
Unlike the traditional Ottoman ceramic tile decorations in mosques, the Šarena Džamija has bright floral paintings. More than 30,000 eggs were used to prepare the paint and glaze that went into the elaborate decorations. Another major difference between the Šarena Džamija and other Ottoman mosques is that the Šarena Džamija does not have a distinctive exterior dome.
We stayed at the Blue House Hotel in Istanbul. This is a shot from our window! From the rooftop restaurant the Blue Mosque is across the street, the Haggia Sophia is major view a block away the other direction. Price is right, service excellent. The only place to stay. www.bluehouse.com.tr/english/welcome.asp ALWAYS give credit to my good friends........So Geotags on map
Some of Turkey's best preserved Ottoman architecture can be found in the picturesque river-side city of Amasya.
Sultanahment tram station with the 15th Century Firuz Ağa Mosque in the background. Firuz Ağa was the head treasurer of Sultan Beyazıt II. The marble sarcophagus of Firuz Ağa is located in the mosque complex. The mosque is located in the historical center of the city, on Divan Yolu just around the corner from Sultanahmet Square.
I'll soon be going back to Istanbul for a few days. I visited Istanbul only once before - in November last year - and had only one day to look around as a tourist, which was really a shame. There's so much to see. To warm up, I found one of the shots from my previous visit and worked on it.
This photo has been cropped and photoshopped a bit (a lot).
You can visit my Personal Favourites or Most interesting here.
Hagia Sophia (from the Greek: Ἁγία Σοφία, "Holy Wisdom"; Latin: Sancta Sophia or Sancta Sapientia; Turkish: Ayasofya) is a former Orthodox patriarchal basilica, later a mosque, and now a museum in Istanbul, Turkey. From the date of its dedication in 360 until 1453, it served as the Greek Patriarchal cathedral of Constantinople, except between 1204 and 1261, when it was converted to a Roman Catholic cathedral under the Latin Patriarch of Constantinople of the Western Crusader established Latin Empire. The building was a mosque from 29 May 1453 until 1931, when it was secularized. It was opened as a museum on 1 February 1935.
Famous in particular for its massive dome, it is considered the epitome of Byzantine architecture and is said to have "changed the history of architecture." It was the largest cathedral in the world for nearly a thousand years, until Seville Cathedral was completed in 1520. The current building was originally constructed as a church between 532 and 537 on the orders of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian and was the third Church of the Holy Wisdom to occupy the site, the previous two having both been destroyed by rioters. It was designed by the Greek scientists Isidore of Miletus, a physicist, and Anthemius of Tralles, a mathematician.
In 1453, Constantinople was conquered by the Ottoman Turks under Sultan Mehmed II, who subsequently ordered the building converted into a mosque. The bells, altar, iconostasis, and sacrificial vessels were removed and many of the mosaics were plastered over. Islamic features – such as the mihrab, minbar, and four minarets – were added while in the possession of the Ottomans. It remained a mosque until 1931 when it was closed to the public for four years. It was re-opened in 1935 as a museum by the Republic of Turkey.
For almost 500 years the principal mosque of Istanbul, Hagia Sophia served as a model for many other Ottoman mosques, such as the Sultan Ahmed Mosque (Blue Mosque of Istanbul), the Şehzade Mosque, the Süleymaniye Mosque, the Rüstem Pasha Mosque and the Kılıç Ali Paşa Mosque.
Hagia Sophia is one of the greatest surviving examples of Byzantine architecture. Of great artistic value was its decorated interior with mosaics and marble pillars and coverings. The temple itself was so richly and artistically decorated that Justinian proclaimed, "Solomon, I have outdone thee!" (Νενίκηκά σε Σολομών). Justinian himself had overseen the completion of the greatest cathedral ever built up to that time, and it was to remain the largest cathedral for 1,000 years up until the completion of the cathedral in Seville in Spain.
Justinian's basilica was at once the culminating architectural achievement of late antiquity and the first masterpiece of Byzantine architecture. Its influence, both architecturally and liturgically, was widespread and enduring in the Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Muslim worlds alike. The largest columns are of granite, about 19 or 20 metres high and at least 1.5 metres in diameter; the largest weigh well over 70 tons apiece. Under Justinian's orders, eight Corinthian columns were disassembled from Baalbek, Lebanon and shipped to Constantinople for the construction of Hagia Sophia.
The vast interior has a complex structure. The nave is covered by a central dome which at its maximum is 55.6 m (182 ft 5 in) from floor level and rests on an arcade of 40 arched windows. Repairs to its structure have left the dome somewhat elliptical – with the diameter varying between 31.24 m (102 ft 6 in) and 30.86 m (101 ft 3 in).
The Imperial Gate was the main entrance between the exo- and esonarthex. It was reserved only for the emperor. The Byzantine mosaic above the portal depicts Christ and Emperor Leo VI the Wise. A long ramp from the northern part of the outer narthex leads up to the upper gallery. The upper gallery is laid out in a horseshoe shape that encloses the nave until the apse. Several mosaics are preserved in the upper gallery, an area traditionally reserved for the empress and her court. The best-preserved mosaics are located in the southern part of the gallery.
The Sultan Ahmed Mosque (Turkish: Sultanahmet Camii, Ottoman Turkish and Arabic: مَسجِدُ السلطان أحمد pr. masjedu alsultane Ahmad) is a historical mosque in Istanbul, the largest city in Turkey and the capital of the Ottoman Empire (from 1453 to 1923). The mosque is popularly known as the Blue Mosque for the blue tiles adorning the walls of its interior. It was built from 1609 to 1616, during the rule of Ahmed I. Like many other mosques, it also comprises a tomb of the founder, a madrasah and a hospice. While still used as a mosque, the Sultan Ahmed Mosque has also become a popular tourist attraction.
The upper levels of the interior are dominated by blue paint. More than 200 stained glass windows with intricate designs admit natural light, today assisted by chandeliers. On the chandeliers, ostrich eggs are found that were meant to avoid cobwebs inside the mosque by repelling spiders. The decorations include verses from the Qur'an, many of them made by Seyyid Kasim Gubari, regarded as the greatest calligrapher of his time. The many spacious windows confer a spacious impression. The casements at floor level are decorated with opus sectile. Each exedra has five windows, some of which are blind. Each semi-dome has 14 windows and the central dome 28 (four of which are blind). The coloured glass for the windows was a gift of the Signoria of Venice to the sultan. Most of these coloured windows have by now been replaced by modern versions with little or no artistic merit.
Fotoğraf kusurlu, farkındayım 2008 Ekimine ait. Ama hatırlatmak istedim bu kutlamaların yaklaştığını. Çünkü geçen yıl arabadan dahi inemeden eve dönmek zorunda kalmıştık yoğun ilgiden dolayı ...
Kervansaray is the big inn which merchants used to stay at while travellng to buy and sell goods (esp. silk & spice) ..My husband says it's on the silk road ...
The Ornate 16th-century mosque Banya Bashi, is framed by the archaeological remains of 4th century Sofia.
The Süleymaniye Mosque, built on the order of Sultan Süleyman (Süleyman the Magnificent), "was fortunate to be able to draw on the talents of the architectural genius of Mimar Sinan" (481 Traditions and Encounters: Brief Global History). The construction work began in 1550 and the mosque was finished in 1557.
This "vast religious complex called the Süleymaniye...blended Islamic and Byzantine architectural elements. It combines tall, slender minarets with large domed buildings supported by half domes in the style of the Byzantine church Hagia Sophia (which the Ottomans converted into the mosque of Aya Sofya)" (481 Traditions and Encounters: Brief Global History).
The design of the Süleymaniye also plays on Suleyman's self-conscious representation of himself as a 'second Solomon.' It references the Dome of the Rock, which was built on the site of the Temple of Solomon, as well as Justinian's boast upon the completion of the Hagia Sophia: "Solomon, I have surpassed thee!"[1] The Süleymaniye, similar in magnificence to the preceding structures, asserts Suleyman's historical importance. The structure is nevertheless smaller in size than its older archetype, the Hagia Sophia.