This is not a single tomb but a small complex on Defterdar Caddesi: tomb, school, sebil, fountain and burial ground together, with the Zal Mahmud Paşa Mosque on one side.
A tall courtyard gate opens onto the street, a brass-grilled window on either side of it. The raised school and the sebil stand to the right of the gate, the tomb to the left — so the group is read from the street rather than from a courtyard.
Şah Sultan, for whom it was built, was the sister of Selim II and the daughter of a sultan; the inscription over the gate records that her mother had the tomb and the school built after her death.
When to go
- Climate
- Across İstanbul as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from 6.8 °C in January to 24.7 °C in August; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in May, June, July, August, September and October; rainfall is heaviest in December (99 mm) and lightest in July (22 mm). Long-term means for 1950-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
