Mihrimah Sultan Mosque

Facts

• It was built by the great Ottoman architect Sinan for the memory of Sultana Mihrimah who died in 1558. She was the daughter of Suleiman The Magnificent and his famous Russian wife Sultana Roxelana.
• A large (20 m) and high (35 m) single dome dominates the structure.
• A single tower, called a minaret, stands to one side of the Mihrimah Mosque. As the Sultan's daughter, Mihrimah was entitled to two minarets, but as legend has it, she ordered Sinan to stop at one as a symbol of her desperate loneliness. (Source: Wonders Of The World)
• The earliest great domes, like the Pantheon, were made of solid concrete for fear that windows in a dome would lead to its collapse. In time, ancient engineers realized they could think of a dome as a circular ring of arches, which meant they could open up the spaces between the arches, creating windows. Sinan, one of the greatest architect-engineers of the 16th century, pierced one of his most famous domes, the Mihrimah Mosque, with more windows than any architect had ever dared before. Rumors were that Sinan was in love with the Sultan's married daughter, Princess Mihrimah. To express his love, Sinan constructed a dome unlike any other. The Mihrimah Mosque was the lightest structure Sinan had ever built, pierced all the way around with 161 windows. Four immense arches support the dome, and glass walls fill the spaces between the arches. An elegant blend of art and engineering, the Mihrimah Mosque still stands today, almost entirely in its original form. (Source: Wonders Of The World)