Süleymaniye Mosque, described as a journeyman work by Mimar Sinan, was built between 1551 and 1558 by the order of the Ottoman sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. Süleymaniye Mosque is one of the most important examples of Classical Ottoman Architecture. The dome of the mosque, which has four minarets, two with three balconies and two with two balconies, is 53 meters high. It is rumored that the great scholar Sheikhulislam Ebussuud Efendi laid the first stone on the foundation of the temple, the construction of which started in one of the most beautiful places of Istanbul.
The temple has a main dome, two semi-domes, two quarter domes and ten small domes. The main dome has four elephant feet; The dome arches are supported by four large granite columns. The dome with 32 windows is 27.25 meters in diameter and 53 meters above the ground. In order to strengthen the echo of the sound, there are 64 cubes of 50 cm in length placed inside the dome and in the corners, with the mouth open on the inside, thus creating a sensitive acoustic. The mosque, which has an internal area of approximately 3,500 square meters, is 59 meters long and 58 meters wide and receives light from 238 windows. The sultan and muezzin's gallery, pulpit and mihrab, based on granite and marble columns, attract attention with their workmanship. The section to the right of the muezzin's gallery, surrounded by metal networks, was used as a library until 1918; The existing books were transferred to the General Library established in Suleymaniye Madrasas on the same date.
There are colored windows above the mihrab at the front of the mosque, which has five doors. The windows in question, which are the work of the well-known master of the period, İbrahim Usta, make the sunlight entering through their windows resemble Mimar Sinan Şehper-i Cibril (Wings of Gabriel). There are four very valuable large granite columns in the mosque, and they were taken from Alexandria, Baalbek, Kıztaşı and Saray-ı Amire in Istanbul and brought to the mosque. Mimar Sinan compares these four columns, each 9.02 meters high, 1.14 meters in diameter and weighing 40-50 tons, to the Four Caliphs. The temple has a large inner courtyard with three gates, the floor of which is paved with marble and surrounded by porticoes with 28 domes. The mentioned dome arches are based on 24 columns, 12 of which are granite, 10 are marble and two are porphyry marble columns.
The mosque has four minarets and ten balconies built in a style appropriate to its majesty. Two of the minarets have three balconies each and the other two have two balconies each. The minarets, called "Mosque Minarets" and "Harem Minarets", were built by Suleiman the Magnificent, the fourth sultan, with the conquest of Istanbul; The ten cheers indicate that he is the 10th sultan of the Ottoman Empire. Minarets rising towards the sky resemble a person praying with both hands raised. The writings in the mosque are the work of the famous calligrapher Ahmet Karahisarî and his student Hasan Çelebi. Later, Kazasker Mustafa Efendi also added some writings. Except for a few of the articles, the text of all of them is taken from the Holy Quran and processed masterfully. The inscription written on the door entering the mosque from the inner courtyard is divided into three parts: right, middle and left. In the first part, the qualities of Suleiman the Magnificent are listed, in the second part, his genealogy (lineage) is stated in series, and in the third part, after praying for the continuation of the sultanate and the souls of the past, the superior qualities of the temple are stated, with what intention and when it was built. The tomb in front of the mihrab belongs to Suleiman the Magnificent, who had the mosque built with his own money, and the tomb next to it belongs to his wife Hürrem Sultan.
