The forecourt, with its two elegant minarets and large wooden roofs above the side-portals, has a remarkably fine octagonal fountain of ablution (shudrivàn) in the centre.
Like the Suleïmanieh (p. [552]) the mosque is preceded by two colonnades. In the interior the lower wall surfaces and the four massive pillars of the dome are incrusted with bluish-green tiles. The mihrâb wall is connected with the pillars by a gallery; adjoining it, near the mihrâb or prayer-niche itself, are the superb pulpit and the railed-in gallery of the sultan. The adjacent *Private Rooms of the sultan still have their original decoration of fayence tiles and stained glass.
The Türbeh contains the sarcophagus of the sultan’s mother and the tombs of five sultans, recognizable by the turban and double heron’s plume.
On the W. side of the outer court is the Missir Charshi (Pl. G, 5; ‘Egyptian Bazaar’), originally for goods from Egypt, but now a general market, next in importance to the Great Bazaar (p. [551]). Among the wares in the open shops of the vaulted street the chief commodities are spices, drugs, and pigments.
To the W. of the Egyptian Bazaar, at the foot of Rue Ousoun Tcharchi (p. [551]), rises the Mosque of Rustem Pasha (Pl. G, 5), vizier of Suleiman the Great (p. [542]) and husband of his daughter Mihrimah (p. [553]). It was built by Sinán (p. [552]). The interior is noteworthy chiefly for the superb effect produced by its fayence tiles.
We follow the tramway (No. 3; p. [538]), to the S.E., through the Rue Bagtché Kapou, so named after the old ‘garden-gate’ of Stambul, and the Hamidieh Jaddesi, crossing the broad Bab Ali Jaddesi which leads to the left to the Railway Station (p. [537]). Farther on we come to the wall of the Seraglio on the left, and to (10 min.) the Sublime Porte (Pl. H, 6; vizierate and ministry of foreign affairs) on the right. Its central part, which contained the ministry of home affairs and the cabinet was burnt down in Feb. 1911.
The Seraglio or Seraï (Pl. H-I, 5, 7; now officially called Top Kapu Seraï, ‘seraglio of the cannon-gate’), with its neglected garden-terraces and miscellaneous buildings, occupies the site of the Acropolis and oldest streets of Byzantium (p. [541]) and the first of the seven hills of New Rome. Within the extensive precincts, enclosed by a pinnacled wall and defended by towers, Mohammed II. in 1468 erected a summer palace, which Suleiman the Great (p. [542]) enlarged and made his residence. All the sultans resided here until Abdul Mejíd built the Dolma Bagcheh Palace (1850–5; p. [558]). In 1873 the railway was carried through the gardens, past the Granite Column of Emp. Claudius II. (268–70 A. D.). Around the palace are grouped the old church of Irene (p. [548]), several military and other new buildings, the imperial Mint, and the School of Art founded in 1889.
From the chief entrance, the So-uk Cheshmeh Gate (Pl. H, 6), we ascend to the right, past the Mint, to the first terrace. A road to the left leads thence, behind the School of Art, to the New Museum, on the right, and the Chinili Kiosque, on the left.
The New Museum (Pl. I, 6), opened in 1891, contains the imperial **Collection of Antiquities, the arrangement of which is still incomplete. Adm., see p. [539]. Director, Halil Bey.
Ground Floor. The first rooms, on the right and left of the entrance, contain the sarcophagi, including the famous coffins discovered in 1887 in the so-called royal tombs of Sidon (p. [470]). The two vaults, in which the rulers of Sidon of the 6–4th cent. B. C. are supposed to have been buried, contained 26 stone coffins, some in the Egyptian form of a mummy, with sculptured heads, others shaped like Greek temples. In several cases their execution is highly artistic. The finest are in (right) Room I: *No. 48. So-called Satrap’s Coffin, of Ionian workmanship (first half of 5th cent.); *49. Sarcophagus of the mourning women, in marble, in the form of a temple, influenced in style by the works of Praxiteles (4th cent.). In (left) Room II: *No. 75. Lycian sarcophagus, with lid in the form of a pointed arch, executed under the fresh influence of the Parthenon reliefs (p. [517]); **76. Alexander sarcophagus, an Attic original (about 300 B. C.), with traces of rich colouring; 90. Sarcophagus of Tabnit, king of Sidon, originally that of an Egyptian general (6th cent.). Again, in Room I: No. 1142. Tomb-stele from Nisyros (p. [490]; about 500 B.C.); 45. Tomb-stele from Pella, a fine early Greek work like the last; 31–33. Fragments of Roman sarcophagi (Ulysses fighting against the wooers, etc.); also leaden coffins from Beirut, Khoms (p. [412]), etc. (Room II contains also six terracotta coffins from Klazomenæ, 6th cent. B. C.). Among the objects in the other rooms we note a large Lycian sarcophagus from Trysa (2nd cent. B. C.); *1179. Late Roman sarcophagus from the region of Konia, with the recumbent figures of man and wife.