Ulu Camii (Great Mosque)

The Ulu Camii is the most important historic monument in Adana — a Mamluk-Ramazanoğlu mosque complex begun in 1513 and completed in 1541. The exterior, in distinctive bands of black and white stone, looks more Egyptian or Syrian than Anatolian, a reminder of the Mamluk artistic tradition that the local beys inherited. The single tall minaret rises from the south-east corner; the small surrounding courtyard contains the founder's türbe (tomb).

Inside, the prayer hall is dim and intimate, with a magnificent inlaid mihrab and a richly carved walnut minbar. The complex also contains a former madrasa, now used by a community library. Visitors are welcome outside prayer times.

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A story
The Mamluk emir Halil Bey, ruler of the Ramazanoğlu beylik that controlled Cilicia in the fifteenth century, intended the mosque as the centrepiece of a much larger religious complex. He died before it was finished, and his successor Pir Mehmet Pasha completed it in 1541 under the new Ottoman administration. The mihrab and minbar of black, white and red inlaid marble are the finest of their kind in Anatolia and bear the Mamluk signature in their banded geometry.