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**Half Day Afternoon Tour**Topkapi Palace Rustem Pasha Mosque Tour fee includes transportation, guide, entrance fees as mentioned.

Adult

Starting USD 38

Rustem Pasa Mosque
This mosque was built in 1561 by Rustem Pasa, twice Grand Vezir under Suleyman the Magnificent and husband of the Sultan's favorite daughter, the Princess Mihrimah.

The mosque is built on a high terrace over an interesting complex of vaulted shops, the rent from which went to maintain the foundation. Interior flights of steps lead up from the corners of the platform to a spacious and beautiful courtyard, unique in the city. The mosque is preceded by a double porch: first the usual type of porch consisting of five domed bays, and then, projecting from this, a deep and low-slung penthouse roof, its outer edge resting on a row of columns.

This arrangement is very pleasant and has a definite architectural unity. The plan of the mosque consist of an octagon inscribed in a rectangle; the dome rest on four semi domes, not in the axes but in the diagonals of the building; the arches of the dome spring from four octagonal pillars, two on the north, two on the south, and from piers projecting from the east and west walls. To north and south are galleries supported by pillars and by small marble columns between them.

Rustem Pasa Mosque is especially famous for its very fine tiles, which almost cover the walls, not only on the interior but also on the fa�ade of the porch. One should also climb to the galleries where the tiles are of a different pattern.

Like all the great Turkish tiles, those of Rustem Pasa came from the kilns of Iznik in its greatest period (c.1555 - 1620) and they show the tomato-red or 'Armenian bole', which is characteristic of that period. These exquisite tiles, in every conceivable floral and geometric design, cover not only the walls, but also the columns, mihrab, and member. Altogether they make one of the most beautiful and striking mosque interiors in the city.

The palace was a setting for state occasions and royal entertainments and is a major tourist attraction today, containing the most holy relics of the Muslim world such as the Prophet Muhammed's cloak and sword. Topkapı Palace is among those monuments belonging to the "Historic Areas of Istanbul", which became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985, and is described in Criterion iv as "the best example of ensembles of palaces of the Ottoman period.

The palace complex is located on the Seraglio Point (Sarayburnu), a promontory overlooking the Golden Horn and the Sea of Marmara, with the Bosphorus in plain sight from many points of the palace. The site is hilly and one of the highest points close to the sea. During Greek and Byzantine times, the acropolis of the ancient Greek city of Byzantion stood here. There is an underground Byzantine cistern, located in the Second Courtyard, which was used throughout Ottoman times, as well as remains of a small church, the so-called Palace Basilica on the acropolis have also been excavated in modern times. The nearby Church of Hagia Eirene, though located in the First Courtyard, is not considered a part of the old Byzantine acropolis.