Selimiye Mosque on UNESCO World Heritage List
On 27 June, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) announced to have added the Selimiye Mosque in Edirne (north-western Turkey) to the World Heritage List.
The organization reviewed 35 regions and works. The Selimiye Mosque was built by Ottoman architect Sinan and is considered as his "finest work". This is the 10th inscription for Turkey on the World Heritage List.
"The square Mosque with its single great dome and four slender minarets, dominates the skyline of the former Ottoman capital of Edirne. Sinan, the most famous of Ottoman architects in the 16th century, considered the complex, which includes madrasas (Islamic schools), a covered market, clock house, outer courtyard and library, to be his best work" the UNESCO describes the mosque.
Other buildings newly added to the list were e.g. the cultural sites of Al Ain in the United Arab Emirates, the ancient villages of northern Syria, the Persian Gardens in Iran, the cultural landscape of the Serra de Tramuntana in Spain or the prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps.
Other sites and buildings in Turkey inscribed on the World Heritage List from 1982 to the present are Göreme National Part and the Rock Sites of Cappadocia (central Anatolia), the Great Mosque and Hospital of Divriği (central Anatolia), the Historic Areas of Istanbul, the Hittite Capital of Hattusha (northern Turkey), the Nemrut Mountain (south-east), Hierapolis-Pamukkale (west), Xanthos-Letoon (south), the City of Safranbolu (north) and the Archaeological Site of Troy (west). (HK/VK)