Countryside Trip

Bursa was one of the cities we visited during our 10-day trip in Turkey last September 2011. It is a is a city in northwestern Turkey and the fourth most populous. The mausoleums of early the Ottoman sultans are located in Bursa and the numerous edifices built throughout the Ottoman period constitute the city’s main landmarks.

One of the sights we visited was Ulu Cami, also known as Bursa Grand Mosque. It was built in the Seljuk style and it was ordered by the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid I and built between 1396 and 1400. The mosque has 20 domes and 2 minarets. We had the chance  to go inside the mosque, evidenced by the image I took inside.

The beautiful interior of the Bursa Grand Mosque. I was there!Ulu Cami or the Bursa Grand Mosque in Bursa, Turkey. This was taken during our 10-day vacation in Turkey last September 2011.

Inside the mosque there are 192 monumental wall inscriptions written by the famous Ottoman calligraphers of that period. The mosque has one of the greatest examples of Islamic calligraphy in the world. The Calligraphy is written on the walls, columns and on small and large plates.

BURSA HISTORY:

The earliest known settlement at this location was the Ancient Greek city of Cius, which Philip V of Macedon granted to Prusias, the King of Bithynia, in 202 BC. Prusias rebuilt the city and renamed it to Prusia (Προύσα). After 128 years of Bithynian rule; Nicomedes IV, the last King of Bithynia, bequeathed the entire kingdom to Roman Empire in 74 BC.

Bursa became the first major capital city of the early Ottoman Empire following its capture from the Byzantines in 1326. As a result, the city witnessed a considerable amount of urban growth throughout the 14th century. After conquering Edirne (Adrianople) in 1365 the Ottomans turned it into a joint capital city for governing their European realms, but Bursa remained the most important Anatolian administrative and commercial center even after it lost its status as the sole Ottoman capital. The Ottoman sultan Bayezid I built the Bayezid Külliyesi (Bayezid I theological complex) in Bursa between 1390 and 1395[2] and the Ulu Cami (Great Mosque) between 1396 and 1400.[3] The population of Bursa was 45,000 in 1487. Bursa remained to be the most important administrative and commercial center in the empire until Mehmed II conquered İstanbul. more here

The  exterior  of Ulu Cami and you can see one of  its minarets.  I am happy to visit such an amazing architecture during those early times.

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