Big K

Sehzade Mosque is one of the most notable mosques of Sinan, attributed to be the first major large scale work after he had been appointed as the "chief architect".

The date that the construction of the mosque was started, is somewhat ambigious. Yet, the mosque is known to be built in the name of Sehzade Mehmet, son of Suleyman, who had suffered an unexpected and early death.

The mosque has a square based symmetrical plan and the courtyard is a square as big as the interior of the mosque. The dome is supported by four piers and flanked by four half domes on each side. The combination of the square plan and the dome surrounded by four half domes is unprecedented in Islamic architecture.

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sehzademain



1990's during a restoration work engineers have faced a very though mission. they would have to replace a pivot stone of an arch but they didnt know how Sinan the Architect built it and with wich method/kind of stone etc.

after long discussions engineers decided to dismantle the whole arch part by part with taking notes about the revelation of ancient techniques.

when they took out the pivot stone engineers found a glass bottle with some piece of paper inside it.

it was written in Ottoman language.

when they translated the paper they schocked: that was a letter from Sinan the Architect.

he sad: "the lifetime of this stone is around 400 years. within 400 years you'll probably want to replace it because it will probably begin to decompose."

than Sinan stated the methods of constructions, from which part of Anatolia they can find this kind of stone and all the details etc...

an other interesting issue that how did he managed to find paper and ink to resist the effects of time for 400 years.

anyway i think this is a very best exemple of responsability who produced solutions for future 400 years and sharing the knowledge.

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fazyninja

wow, if this is true then it is truly amazing. i have heard historians call him the best architect of all time and i think i know why they said it now.

Shamus

Very beautiful Big K,the center dome seems to have an element of optical illusion to it.

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it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.

diLhun

He is the best architect of all time...