Uskudar

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The most interesting of these Anatolian suburbs from the point of view of historical monuments is Uskudar, which lies directly opposite the Golden Horn.

Uskudar was anciently known as Chrysopolis, the City of Gold. Chrysopolis was, in antiquity, a sort of suburb of the neighboring and more important town of Chalcedon, the modern Kadikoy, now, itself, a suburb of the great city across the strait.

The ferry landing is dominated on the left by a stately mosque on a high terrace. It takes its name, Iskele Camii, from the ferry landing itself. This mosque was built in 1547 by Sinan for Mihrimah Sultan, daughter of Suleyman the Magnificent and wife of the Grand Vezir Rustem Pasa.

Passing the fountain and entering the main street of Uskudar we soon come on the left to a supermarket housed in the remains of an ancient hamam. A little farther on is an ancient and curious mosque built by Nisanci Kara Davut Pasa toward the end of the fifteenth century.

Across the street and opening into the square is the large complex of Yeni Valide Camii, built between 1708 and 1710 by Ahmet III and dedicated to his mother, the Valide Gulnus Emetullah.

One reaches the precincts of one of Sinan's most delightful smaller kuliyes, that of Semsi Pasa Camii, which attracts the attention as one approaches Uskudar by boat because of its picturesqueness and the whiteness of its stone. Located just at the waters edge, it was built by Sinan for the Vzir Semsi Pasa in 1580.

Another ancient mosque half way up a low hill to the left is the mosque of Mehmet Pasa, built in 1471.

A Baroque mosque, known as Ayazma Camii, built in 1760 by Sultan Mustafa III and dedicated to his mother, is one of the more successful of the baroque mosques, especially on the exterior.

The Ahmediye mosque and medrese, built in 1722 by Eminzade Haci Ahmet Pasa, comptroller of the Arsenal under Ahmet III is also located in Uskudar.

The great kulliye of Atik Valide Camii was built by Sinan in 1583 for Nur Banu Sultan, wife of Selim II and mother of Murat III. This is the most splendid and extensive of all Sinan's constructions in Istanbul with the sole exception of the Suleymaniye.