Turkey Guide
İstanbul
The tomb of Sultan Ahmet
Address: Outside the precinct wall to the northwest of the Blue Mosque
Opening time: Tues– Sat 9am–4pm
Price: Free
is the türbe or tomb of Sultan Ahmet, decorated, like the mosque, with seventeenth-century İznik tiles. Buried here along with the sultan are his wife and three of his sons, two of whom (Osman II and Murat IV) ruled in their turn. This successive rule of brothers was only possible because Sultan Ahmet had introduced the institution of the Cage, thus relieving himself and his sons of the burden of fratricide upon accession to the throne. Unfortunately, both Ahmet's own brother Mustafa and his son Osman were completely mad and unfit to rule by the time they left the Cage to take up the reins of office. Murat IV only escaped this fate by succeeding to the throne at the age of 10, before the conditions in the Cage had affected him.