Sabancı Merkez Mosque

Listen first. Water moves slowly past the riverbank. Traffic hums on the bridges. Pigeons lift off the stone courtyard in one grey cloud. Then six slender towers rise above the trees and catch the light. You are standing beside the Seyhan River in Adana, in southern Turkey. In front of you is the Sabancı Merkez Mosque. It is one of the largest mosques in the country, and one of the newest buildings in this guide's world to look so old.

That contrast is the first surprise. Many visitors assume this mosque is centuries old. The domes and minarets follow the classical Ottoman style, the style of the great imperial mosques of Istanbul. But this building is modern. Work began in the late 1980s, and the mosque opened in 1998. It is a late twentieth century building that speaks in a sixteenth century architectural language. Keep that in mind as you walk. Almost everything here is a deliberate choice.

Start with the minarets. There are six of them. That number matters in Turkey. A minaret is the tall tower from which the call to prayer is given. Most mosques have one, two, or four. Six is rare. The Sultan Ahmed Mosque in Istanbul, often called the Blue Mosque, is the most famous mosque with six. By choosing six, the builders placed Adana in conversation with the old imperial capital. The towers are also very tall, among the tallest minarets in the country.

Now look at the shape of the roof. A large central dome sits at the top. Smaller half domes and domes step down around it, like a cascade of stone. This is the classical Ottoman formula. It spreads the weight of the great dome outward and down to the ground. From a distance, it gives the building a pyramid outline. Walk slowly along the side and watch the domes shift and overlap. The silhouette changes with every few steps you take.

Who paid for all this? The name gives the answer. Sabancı is one of Turkey's best known business families. Their story is closely tied to Adana. The family founder, Hacı Ömer Sabancı, came to this region as a young man in the early twentieth century and worked in the cotton trade. Adana sits on the Çukurova plain, one of the richest farming areas in Turkey. Cotton built much of the city's wealth. It also built the foundation of the Sabancı business group.

So this mosque is more than a place of worship. It is also a gift from a family to the city where its fortune began. The Sabancı family supported the project, and the building carries their name. The word Merkez simply means central. Locals often just call it the Sabancı Mosque, or the Central Mosque. If you ask for directions, either name will work. Almost everyone in Adana knows this building.

Step into the courtyard. Classical Ottoman mosques usually have an open forecourt in front of the prayer hall. It is surrounded by a covered arcade of arches and small domes. In the centre there is often a fountain for ritual washing. Here, notice how the arcade frames the sky and the minarets. The courtyard is a transition space. It moves you from the noise of the city to the quiet of prayer. Pause here for a moment before you go inside.

If you enter the prayer hall, remove your shoes at the door. Women should cover their hair, and everyone should cover shoulders and knees. Inside, the first thing most people notice is the space itself. The floor is open and carpeted. The dome rises high overhead. Light enters through many rows of windows. The hall is designed to hold a very large congregation, tens of thousands of people when the courtyard is included. On ordinary weekdays, it can feel almost empty and very calm.

Look up into the dome. The interior is decorated with painted patterns, calligraphy, and stained glass. Calligraphy means the art of beautiful writing. In mosques, it usually shows verses from the Quran or the names of God and the Prophet. You do not need to read Arabic to enjoy it. Follow the lines as they curve around the circles. Then look down to the large chandelier. Its many lamps hang low, so the light sits close to the people praying below.

Near the front wall, find the mihrab. This is a decorated niche that shows the direction of Mecca. Every worshipper faces this direction during prayer. Beside it stands the minbar, a tall staircase pulpit used for the Friday sermon. Notice that the imam does not climb to the very top. By tradition, the highest step is left empty. Please keep your voice low here, and avoid walking in front of anyone who is praying.

Now go back outside and turn toward the river. The mosque does not stand alone. Close by, the Taşköprü, or Stone Bridge, crosses the Seyhan. Its origins go back to the Roman period, and it is one of the oldest bridges in the world still in use. So within a few minutes' walk, you can see nearly two thousand years of Adana. There is an ancient bridge, a modern mosque in an old style, and a busy riverside city around them.

The riverbank is also where the mosque is easiest to see as a whole. Up close, it is hard to fit all six minarets in one view. From the opposite bank, or from the parks along the water, the building settles into its full shape. In the evening, the mosque is lit, and its reflection can stretch across the river. Families walk here after sunset. Tea sellers move between the benches. The building becomes part of an ordinary evening in the city.

Before you leave, stand still for one more minute. Look at the stone, the domes, and the six towers against the sky. This building is not ancient. But it was built to feel continuous with the past, and to give a cotton city a landmark worthy of its wealth. If you are here at prayer time, you will hear the call rise from the minarets and travel across the water. Let it follow you as you walk back toward the river.