Atik Valide Mosque 2.38

The Atik Valide Mosque is an Ottoman mosque located on the hill above a large and densely populated district of Üsküdar, in Istanbul, Turkey.HistoryThe Atik Valide Mosque was one of the most extensive mosque complexes in Istanbul area. The mosque was built for Nurbanu Sultan, the Venetian-born wife of Selim II and the mother of Murad III. She was the first valide sultan that exercised effective rule over the Ottoman Empire from the harem during the period known as the Sultanate of Women.The famed imperial architect Mimar Sinan completed the mosque in 1583, and it was his last major work. It has a wide shallow dome which rest on five semidomes, with a flat arch over the entrance portal. The interior is surrounded on three sides by galleries.