Daily Bursa Uludag Tour

About Daily Bursa and Uludag Tour

DAILY GREEN BURSA TOUR

Departure from Istanbul: Carried out Everyday

It all started on the slopes of the 2543 meter Sublime Mount, Uludag, ancient Mount Olympus of Bithynia. Orhan, the son of Osman, the founder of the Ottoman dynasty conquered the city from the Byzantines in 1326 and laid foundations for the Ottoman Empire by turning feudal lordship into an empire and naming the city its first capital. The myth has it that Orhan told the people that Burasi (here) should be the capital of the city’s town. His horse-riding statue is still in the square in the Sehrekustu neighborhood

The city is often referred to as “Yeşil Bursa” (“Green Bursa”), referring to the parks, groves and gardens scattered throughout the city, as well as the forests that spread throughout the region. Today, Bursa is an immense city of more than 3 million inhabitants in its metropolitan area and extends on two main axes, Yesil and Cekirge. Bursa displays its proud imperial past while being a modern manufacturing city where Turkey’s automobile and textile industry is concentrated.

But if something makes Bursa famous, it is Iskender kebap (Alejandro Kebab), a dish based on fine marinated meat sautéed with bread and tomato sauce accompanied by yogurt and melted butter. Cooking meat vertically was invented in the 19th century by the restorer Iskender Efendi and perpetuated by his descendants. This typical dish can be found in any Bursa restaurant. After China, Bursa is the second major silk production center; its towels are famous not only in Turkey but also in European cities and in the USA. Everyone who passes through Bursa and does not bring Marrón Glacé is considered a serious failure by his or her friends and loved ones, its large peaches are exported to a few countries.

ULU CAMI: (Sublime Mosque) Considered the largest and most spectacular mosque in Bursa, in fact it is a calligraphy museum, you can see a different side from each angle, with a total of 192 inscriptions on its walls. Sultan Bayaceto I built the Mosque between 1396 and 1399. After the conquest of Macedonia, the country of Alexander the Great (1396), Bayaceto, had promised to build twenty independent mosques before winning.

The power of the Sultanate did not allow building twenty mosques, so the sultan’s teacher gave the idea that instead of building twenty mosque, they should build a mosque with twenty domes supporting with twelve pillars and outside there are two minarets to indicate that it is an imperial mosque. According to legend, when the land was bought for the construction of the mosque, the elderly and stubborn woman who owns the piece of land in the place where the fountain is located did not want to sell her land and once the woman remembered the Justice of the Ottoman Empire, she reserved that part for the skylight dome and ablution fountains.

KOZAHAN: (Silk Market) Built in the fourteenth century and completely rebuilt in the mid-nineteenth century due to a devastating earthquake, the silk market is divided into two square floors. In addition to the quality shops selling silk products on the upper floor, there are cafeterias on the lower floor.

Today you can still see the bag of silk cocoons on Sundays, the mulberry farmers bring and sell their wares in the middle of the market.

After both visits, we will taste the unique Bursa dish: The delicious Iskender Kebab in a traditional restaurant.

GREEN MAUSOLEUM: The Green Mausoleum (Yesil Türbe), is the tomb of Sultan Çelebi Mehmet I. He is Considered as the second founder or rather savior of the Ottoman Empire from the curse of Tamerlan and fights between the princes. Normally, the heights of mausoleums canot not exceed the height mosques but in this case, they built it higher than the mosque.

In the past, the exterior tiles were turquoise, but after an earthquake that destroyed the Silk Market in 1855, they were replaced by more modern ones. Mausoleum has an octagonal shape and has two domes on top of each other, considered as an architectural wonder, It has beautiful tiles that were works of the Persian masters, splendid ornaments on its mihrab. The door has geometric weave motif engravings from walnut trees.

GREEN MOSQUE: The mosque is a work of the architect Haci Ivaz Pacha, son-in-law of Sultan Mehmed I. The nickname of the mosque has nothing to do with trees or other vegetation that surround the mosque, but for the wonderful color of the tiles that decorate this mosque.

This shade is so special that, at present, the experts cannot find an equal color to replace them. It has an upside-down T-shape, after the many-column Arabic style, used by the Turks after imitating the Orthodox churches.

After visiting the most essential monuments of Bursa, we will return to Istanbul as we did before we will cross the Marmara Sea again on a ferry.

DURATION of the TOUR

Full Day Tour, Between 10 and 12 Hours.

PRICE:

90€