New Mosque

The New Mosque at Eminönü took sixty-six years to build, most of them spent as a ruin. Safiye Sultan — wife of Murad III and later Valide Sultan — ordered it in 1597. Work stopped after 1603 and the half-built mosque gradually fell down. In 1660 Turhan Sultan, mother of Mehmed IV, revived the project; it was completed in 1663 and inaugurated in 1665. Three architects saw it through. Davut Ağa, an apprentice of Sinan, began it and died in 1599; Dalgıç Ahmed Çavuş replaced him; Mustafa Ağa finished it sixty years later. Yes. A ramped side route assists prayer-hall entry, but courtyard steps, stone thresholds and crowds limit the full complex. Yes. Yes. Friday noon has a longer worship-only interval. Yes, and shoes are removed. No, though a side ramp assists hall entry. Eminönü tram, bus and ferry terminals. Open daily from dawn until after night prayer; sightseeing pauses during the five services and around Friday noon. Entry is free; donations are voluntary. A ramped side route assists prayer-hall entry, but courtyard steps, stone thresholds and crowds limit the full complex. T1 Eminönü, city buses and Eminönü ferry piers are directly outside the mosque beside the Spice Bazaar. Yes. Yes. Friday noon has a longer worship-only interval. Yes, and shoes are removed. No, though a side ramp assists hall entry. Eminönü tram, bus and ferry terminals. Open daily from dawn until after night prayer; sightseeing pauses during the five services and around Friday noon. Entry is free; donations are voluntary. A ramped side route assists prayer-hall entry, but courtyard steps, stone thresholds and crowds limit the full complex. T1 Eminönü, city buses and Eminönü ferry piers are directly outside the mosque

A dome 36 m high, a tomb holding seven sultans' worth of family, and a market that most visitors meet without realising it belongs to the mosque. The külliye included a large L-shaped market building, and it survives today as the Spice Bazaar — the Mısır Çarşısı. A mosque foundation was funded by its commercial endowments, and here the endowment is still trading four centuries later. The mausoleum holds Turhan Hatice, the Valide Sultan who finished the mosque, her son Mehmed IV, and five later sultans. Yes. T1 Eminönü, city buses and Eminönü ferry piers are directly outside the mosque beside the Spice Bazaar.

Forty-five minutes for the mosque and the tomb, and as long again if you go into the Spice Bazaar next door. The prayer hall is a half-hour visit. The mausoleum outside takes fifteen minutes when it is open. The bazaar is a separate errand. Eminönü is the ferry hub, so this mosque is the natural start or end of a Bosphorus or Golden Horn crossing rather than a destination on its own. Friday noon has a longer worship-only interval.

Open daily from dawn until after night prayer; sightseeing pauses during the five services and around Friday noon. T1 Eminönü, city buses and Eminönü ferry piers are directly outside the mosque beside the Spice Bazaar. A ramped side route assists prayer-hall entry, but courtyard steps, stone thresholds and crowds limit the full complex.

Entry is free; donations are voluntary. Open daily from dawn until after night prayer; sightseeing pauses during the five services and around Friday noon. A ramped side route assists prayer-hall entry, but courtyard steps, stone thresholds and crowds limit the full complex. T1 Eminönü, city buses and Eminönü ferry piers are directly outside the mosque beside the Spice Bazaar.

T1 Eminönü, city buses and Eminönü ferry piers are directly outside the mosque beside the Spice Bazaar. A ramped side route assists prayer-hall entry, but courtyard steps, stone thresholds and crowds limit the full complex. Open daily from dawn until after night prayer; sightseeing pauses during the five services and around Friday noon.

A ramped side route assists prayer-hall entry, but courtyard steps, stone thresholds and crowds limit the full complex. Yes. Yes. Friday noon has a longer worship-only interval. Historic surfaces, crowds and security remain relevant. Open daily from dawn until after night prayer; sightseeing pauses during the five services and around Friday noon.

The mosque from the Galata Bridge, with ferries crossing in front of it, is the Eminönü photograph — and it is best in the last hour of light, when the sun comes down the Golden Horn behind Galata. From the water, on any Üsküdar or Kadıköy ferry, the whole complex sits below Süleymaniye on the hill, which is the frame that shows how the city stacks. Inside, the hall is well lit and the tiles are at gallery level rather than at eye level, which makes a longer lens more useful than a wide one. Entry is free; donations are voluntary.