Erzurum Ulu Mosque (Grand Mosque)

Erzurum Grand Mosque is situated in Yakutiye District, approximately 30 minutes' drive from the city center. It was built in 1179, during the Saltuqid reign after the Battle of Manzikert in 1071. After the battle, the first Anatolian beylik was found in Erzurum, and it was declared the capital. Therefore, the first architectural samples of the Seljuk Empire are situated here. Grand Mosque has a capacity of 6000 and has five doors; no two doors are alike. To deliver the voice equally in the mosque a Muqarnas dome, which is a form of ornamented vaulting in Islamic architecture, is located at the center of it. The Muqarnas domes usually create through arithmetic calculations and the processing of unique shapes on the hard rock ground. It both functions to illuminate the mosque and propagated the existing sound 10 times higher. Currently, the mosque is a praying and historical-visiting site in Erzurum.