The Süleymaniye Mosque

Sinan’s mosque for Süleyman the Magnificent, finished in 1557, sitting on the third hill above the Golden Horn. Most visitors go to the Blue Mosque and stop. This is the better building, it is quieter, and its terrace has the view.

Sinan was the imperial architect for fifty years and built something like three hundred buildings. He called this one his journeyman work and the Selimiye at Edirne his masterpiece, which tells you what he thought a masterpiece was.

What it costs

Free, like every mosque. The whole complex — the courtyard, the cemetery with Süleyman’s and Roxelana’s tombs, the terrace — is free and open.

The complex was never just a mosque. It came with a hospital, a medical school, four colleges, a kitchen that fed the poor and a caravanserai — a welfare system with a dome on it, and the buildings are still there around the courtyard.

When to go

Closed to visitors around the five prayers. Late afternoon is best: the light comes across the Golden Horn and onto the terrace, and the crowd such as it is has gone.

Getting there

It is an uphill walk from Eminönü or from the Grand Bazaar, about fifteen minutes either way through streets that are worth the walk. The T1 tram gets you to the bottom of the hill, not to the mosque.

If you only have an hour

Do the courtyard, then the prayer hall, then go out to the terrace on the Golden Horn side and stay there. It looks down over the water to Galata and Beyoğlu, and it is the one view in Istanbul that costs nothing and involves no queue.

What people get wrong

Skipping it because it is not on the Sultanahmet list. It is twenty minutes’ walk from the Grand Bazaar and it is the single most rewarding free hour in the city.

The other mistake is looking for it on a map of Sultanahmet. It is on the next hill, above the Grand Bazaar, and a good number of visitors never cross the ridge.