The Yavuz Selim Mosque, also known as the Selim I Mosque and the Yavuz Sultan Selim Mosque is a 16th-century Ottoman imperial mosque located at the top of the 5th hill of Istanbul, Turkey, in the neighborhood of Çukurbostan, overlooking the Golden Horn. Its size and geographic position make it a familiar landmark on the Istanbul skyline.
Yavuz Selim Mosque
One of the twin minarets
Inscription at the entrance
The ablution fountain in the courtyard
Selim I, known as Selim the Grim or Selim the Resolute, was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1512 to 1520. Despite lasting only eight years, his reign is notable for the enormous expansion of the Empire, particularly his conquest between 1516 and 1517 of the entire Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt, which included all of the Levant, Hejaz, Tihamah and Egypt itself. On the eve of his death in 1520, the Ottoman Empire spanned about 3.4 million km2 (1.3 million sq mi), having grown by seventy percent during Selim's reign.
16th century miniature of Selim I by Nakkaş Osman
Selim I at the Battle of Chaldiran: artwork at the Chehel Sotoun Pavilion in Isfahan
Outline of the Ottoman Empire, from the Theatro d'el Orbe de la Tierra de Abraham Ortelius, Antwerp, 1602, updated from the 1570 edition
A painting depicting Selim I during the Egypt campaign, located in Army Museum, Istanbul