The tomb stands in front of the mihrab of the Sultan Selim Mosque, on the hill above the Golden Horn where Süleyman the Magnificent had the complex built in his father's name. It is octagonal in plan under a single dome.
Tile panels flank both sides of the entrance; the one on the right carries an inscription dated 1523. Inside, the frame of the sarcophagus is inlaid with mother-of-pearl, and over the sarcophagus lies the kaftan that Selim I is said to have willed as its cover — the one stained with mud thrown up by his teacher's horse on the road to the Egyptian campaign.
Two further tombs stand in the same courtyard: the hexagonal tomb of the princes, where Süleyman's sons Mahmud and Abdullah and his daughters Güherhan and Hüma Şah are buried, and the plain domed tomb of Sultan Abdülmecid, who died in 1861.
The mosque in front of which the tomb stands was begun in 1519 and finished in 1522, according to the inscription over its portal. Some publications credit it to Mimar Sinan, but the district governorate notes that archive documents name Mimar Acem Ali, that Sinan had not yet started work as an architect at that date, and that Sai Çelebi's account of Sinan's buildings says it is not his. The building is square in plan, roofed by a single dome about 24 metres across, and built entirely of küfeki stone; a sundial is set in the wall beside the entrance to the inner courtyard.
Little of the rest of the complex survives. The medrese, soup kitchen and bath have gone, leaving only the primary school, and a girls' high school was built where the soup kitchen stood. A further tomb on the site, where Selim's wife Ayşe Hafsa Sultan, the mother of Süleyman, and his daughter Şah Sultan were buried, has been destroyed. The garden covers about 6,000 square metres and holds three cisterns, and an open water reservoir from the Byzantine period lies within the precinct.
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).
