The Green Mosque and the Green Tomb crown a hillside in Bursa's Yesil district and mark the high point of early Ottoman decorative art. Both were built for Sultan Mehmed I, who reunited the empire after its civil war; the mosque was finished around 1421 and the tomb holds his remains. They take their name from the shimmering blue-green tiles that cover them, made in the demanding cuerda seca technique by master craftsmen brought from Tabriz. Inside the mosque, the mihrab, the sultan's private loge and the tiled panels are astonishing in their depth of colour and gilding, widely considered among the finest Ottoman interiors anywhere. Across the garden, the octagonal tomb glows with turquoise tilework and shelters Mehmed's carved sarcophagus beneath a domed ceiling. The pairing is compact and easy to see together, and the terrace outside offers a fine view back over the rooftops of the city toward the Marmara plain.
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