The tomb of Şehzade Mehmed stands in the graveyard of the Şehzade Mosque, inside the courtyard that also encloses the mosque, the medrese and the tabhane. Of everything Sinan built here, the municipality singles out this tomb as the one he worked with the most care in its decoration.
It is octagonal in plan, with two tiers of windows on every face. According to the seventeenth-century Hadîka, a throne was placed over the tomb as a mark of honour.
It does not stand alone. To its left is the octagonal, single-domed tomb of Rüstem Paşa, also by Sinan, and the same graveyard holds the tombs of Şehzade Mahmud, Hatice Sultan, Fatma Sultan and İbrahim Paşa.
The tomb is the reason the whole complex exists. Süleyman the Magnificent commissioned it from Mimar Sinan for his son Şehzade Mehmed, who died young, and the mosque was begun in 1543 and finished in 1548; it stands on Şehzadebaşı Caddesi, opposite the İstanbul municipal building. Besides the mosque the complex has a soup kitchen, a tabhane, medreses and schools; the soup kitchen and the school lie outside the courtyard wall.
The mosque is square in plan, and its central dome, 18.42 metres across, is extended on four sides by four large half-domes resting on four piers, with a small dome at each corner. The inscription over the central door reads 'sene 955', the Hijri year of its completion. Its courtyard is entered through five gates and ringed by sixteen domes on twelve columns, around a fountain noted for its workmanship, and the two minarets each have two balconies.
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).
