Guide
This is the tomb that gave the district its name, and the source calls it the first building the Ottomans raised in the city: Mehmed II had it built in 1454-55, immediately after the conquest. It stands on the north side of the Eyüp Sultan Mosque, just in front of the inner courtyard.
The man buried here is Halid bin Zeyd, Abu Ayyub al-Ansari, from Medina and head of one of the leading branches of the Khazraj. He met the Prophet in Mecca two years before the migration and became a Muslim. When the Prophet reached Medina in 622 every household wanted to host him; he let his camel choose, and it knelt in front of Halid bin Zeyd's house, where he stayed for seven months until the mosque was finished.
That episode is why the tomb matters to visitors: the man who hosted the Prophet is buried at the top of the Golden Horn, and the complex around him — mosque, courtyards, cemetery — grew from this single building.
