The cradle of the Ottoman Empire — the first Ottoman capital where sultans rest in tiled mausoleums, the world's oldest covered bazaar trades in silk and bronze, and Mount Uludağ's ski runs are 30 minutes from the thermal baths in the old city
Bursa is Turkey's fourth-largest city (1.6 million in the metropolitan area) at the foot of Mount Uludağ (2,543m) in northwestern Anatolia, 90km south of Istanbul by fast ferry via Mudanya port. The Ulu Cami (Grand Mosque, 1396–1399) — 20 domes, 2 minarets, an indoor fountain beneath an oculus — is the founding monument of Ottoman mosque architecture and Bursa's most iconic building. The Kapalıçarşı (covered bazaar), in continuous operation since the 15th century, is one of the oldest covered markets in the world, specialising in Bursa silk (produced here since the Byzantine era) and Bursa to…
Bursa (ancient Prusa) was founded c. 202 BCE by Prusias I of Bithynia and remained a minor Hellenistic and Roman city until 1326, when Orhan I, son of the Ottoman founder Osman I, captured it and made it the first capital of the Ottoman state. The early Ottoman sultans (Osman I, Orhan I, Murat I, Bayezid I) are all buried in Bursa's royal mausoleums — the city is revered as the cradle of the Empire. Mehmed I built the Green Mosque after reunifying the Empire following the Mongol invasion of Timur; its Iznik faience (turquoise-and-green tiles, from which the mosque takes its name) set the stan…