Mihrimah Sultan Mosque, Edirnekapı: Sinan's mosque of light

Updated on October 4, 2026

On the summit of the Sixth Hill, the highest point of the old city, the Mihrimah Sultan Mosque towers over the Edirnekapı gate and the Theodosian Walls. Mimar Sinan built it in the 1560s for Mihrimah, daughter of Suleiman the Magnificent and wife of the grand vizier Rüstem Pasha; sources date its completion to between 1565 and 1570. Its walls, pierced by dozens of windows right up into the tympana, make it one of the architect's brightest interiors. Often damaged by earthquakes, it was restored from 2007 to 2010 after the 1999 quake. Entry is free outside prayer times; allow 20 to 30 minutes, or half a day with Chora (Kariye), a few streets away.

Highlights

The prayer hall

A single dome, 20 m across and 37 m high, covers the hall without half-domes: it rests on four arches whose tympana are almost entirely glazed. Light pours in from every side onto the pale walls; Sinan carried the thrust down to four corner piers to free up the walls.

The silhouette from the walls

From outside, the mosque looks like a great stone cube whose every face is a tympanum filled with windows, beneath a dome and a slender minaret. Set on a platform at the city's highest point, it can be seen from afar, from the Golden Horn as well as from the walls.

The arcaded courtyard

You enter through a courtyard ringed with arcades, with the ablution fountain at its centre. The cells of the former madrasa line the courtyard, as in Sinan's other complexes.

The complex and its legend

Around the mosque survive a school, a tomb and a double hammam that is still in use. A popular legend links this mosque to the one Sinan built for Mihrimah in Üsküdar, across the Bosphorus: on certain dates, it says, the sun sets behind one while the moon rises above the other, echoing Mihrimah's name, "sun and moon".

Infos pratiques

Tips

Entry is free and needs no booking. The prayer hall closes to visitors during the five daily prayers, and on Fridays until the end of the midday prayer. Dress code: shoulders and knees covered for everyone, hair covered for women, shoes off at the entrance. To walk along the walls from the mosque, follow the safety advice in our page on the walls. Information checked in October 2026.

How to get there

Karagümrük Mahallesi, Fevzi Paşa Caddesi 353, 34091 Fatih, Istanbul, just inside the Edirnekapı gate. Tram T4 (Topkapı-Mescid-i Selam), Edirnekapı station, a few minutes on foot; Metrobüs, Edirnekapı stop. Several buses link Eminönü with Edirnekapı along Fevzi Paşa avenue. From Chora, allow about 10 minutes on foot.