Eyüp Sultan Mosque

Set at the head of the Golden Horn, this mosque marks the reputed burial place of Abu Ayyub al-Ansari, a companion of the Prophet Muhammad said to have died during an early Arab siege of Constantinople. First built by Mehmed II after the 1453 conquest and later rebuilt, it became the site where Ottoman sultans were girded with the sword of Osman at their accession. Pilgrims fill its tiled courtyard and tomb chamber, and the hillside cemetery behind climbs toward the famous Pierre Loti viewpoint above.