Along the Land Walls - Strolling Through Istanbul: The Classic Guide to the City - page 361

base with its multi-windowed tympana, identical on all sides, is given
solidity and boldness by the four great, weight-towers at the corners,
prolongations of the piers that support the dome arches. Above this
square rises the dome itself on a circular drum pierced by windows.
If we walk around to the south side of the mosque, we find a
small graveyard at the end of which stands an unusually large sibyan
mektebi with a central dome flanked by two cradle-vaults. Beyond
this and entered through it is the türbe of the Grand Vezir Güzelce
Ahmet Paşa, Mihrimah's son-in-law. (Mihrimah herself is buried in
her father's türbe at the Süleymaniye.) Ahmet Paşa's türbe is like only
one other built by Sinan, that of Pertev Paşa at Eyüp. It is rectangular,
more than twice as long as it is wide, covered by a large dome and two
cradle-vaults. A third example of a classical türbe of this form is that
of Destari Mustafa Paşa at the Şehzade. Ahmet Paşa's türbe contains
a large number of sarcophagi of members of the family of Princess
Mihrimah, many of them children.
On the north-east side of the mosque, entered from the main street,
we see the double hamam of the foundation which has recently been
restored. There is nothing unusual about the plan of this hamam: the
eyvans of the hararet have semidomes, the hücre domes are on simple
pendentives, and the entrance is, as often, of-centre through one
of the hücres. At the corner of the hamam is a simple but attractive
çeşme.
EDİRNEKAPI TO TEKFUR SARAY
The Theodosian walls continue for about 600 metres beyond the
Edirne Gate; the inner wall in this stretch is well preserved and has
nine towers which are more or less intact. (The remaining stretch
of walls leading down to the Golden Horn was built in later times,
from about the seventh to the twelfth century.) At the very end of the
existing Theodosian wall, just next to the last tower in the inner wall,
is the site of a small portal which played a fateful role in the last siege.
This is the Porta Xylokerkou, the Gate of the Wooden Circus, named
after a hippodrome which once stood outside the walls in this area.
It was through here that the Janissaries first made their way into the
city. And it was from the tower beside the Porta Xylokerkou, the very