Selimiye Mosque, Edirne

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Geo: 41.6745, 26.5572

The Selimiye Mosque is the greatest of all the Ottoman mosques. It houses the Mosque, a Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts and a covered bazaar. It was begun in 1569 and completed in 1575. It is larger and deeper than the Haghia Sophia in Istanbul. The dome is 141 feet in diameter. The Museum is housed in what was at one time a Medrese which was a school. Students lived 10 to a room and studied in the elegant classroom. Today the rooms are used to display examples of metal work, wood work, calligraphy and clocks. The city itself is very busy with many streets converted to shopping streets so vehicle access is very difficult. It was very difficult getting to the hotel because of the one way street pattern. The area around Edirne has been the site of no fewer than 16 major battles and sieges dating back to the ancient Greeks. At one time Hadrian developed the city and adorned it with monuments. During the Latin Empire the Crusaders were defeated ib the Bulgarian Emporer Kaloyan. The Turks captured the town in the mid 1360's. Sultan Mehmet II was born here. The Swedish King Charles XII stayed in the city during most of his exile in 1713. The founder of the Bahai faith lived here from 1863 to 1868 after which he was banished to an Ottoman penal colony. The city was briefly occupied by Imperial Russian troops in 1829 and in 1878. The city was a vital fortress during the Balkan Wars of 1912 - 1913. It is famed for its many mosques, domes and minarets. The area is a thriving center of commerce for woven textiles, silks, carpets and agricultural products. Crops include corn, sugar beet, sunflower, melon, watermelon, rice, tomato, eggplant and grapes. Tourism is now becoming a major industry. Lots of people shopping and lots of stores. Yesterday when we took the ferry we crossed from the Asia side of Turkey back to the European side. Today we are very close to the Greek and Bulgarian borders.

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Comments

[Carla]

So interesting

[crw]

Imagine the skill required to build the mosques with simpler tools than we have today. But first, there is imagination - designing what should be built.