Republican Ankara's Mosques from Maltepe to Beştepe

Leave Ankaray at Maltepe station; the mosque stands on Gazi Mustafa Kemal Boulevard, on the ridge east of Anıtkabir, and its two minarets can be seen from far off. According to Wikipedia the foundation was laid on 16 May 1954 and the building completed on 3 August 1959; the work was carried by an association founded in 1950 to build a mosque in Maltepe, the architect was Recai Akçay and the structural engineer Mehmet Varlıer. Akçay's name is also linked to the restoration of the Green Tomb in Bursa and the Ankara Law Faculty building. The architectural question here is the starting point of the route: the building is cut stone, single-domed, twin-minareted and looks like a classical Ottoman mosque; yet it is a modern mosque finished in the second half of the 1950s. Ankara's first large Republican mosque chose the familiar silhouette rather than a new language.

What to look at: the square prayer hall, twenty metres by twenty; coloured light from the many stained-glass windows; the Fatiha at the crown of the dome; Kütahya tiles up to five metres on the walls; the five small domes over the northern courtyard. The dome is thirty metres high outside, the minarets fifty each with one balcony. Underfloor heating was another novelty of its time. Photograph the facade from the boulevard with morning sun on the stone. You walk from here to Kocatepe, south-east towards the hill above Kızılay, about twenty minutes. Enter outside prayer times and remove your shoes; this is one of the city's busiest mosques and the streets around it fill on Fridays.

Source: Wikipedia, Maltepe Camii; Wikipedia, Maltepe Mosque; EBA Okul Dışı Öğrenme Ortamları.

Kocatepe sits on the hill above Kızılay and can be seen from almost anywhere in the city; its story sums up the debate over Republican mosque architecture. The first competition, in 1944, led nowhere. The 1957 competition was won by Vedat Dalokay and Nejat Tekelioğlu with a reinforced concrete shell dome fifty metres square and fifty metres high. Foundations were laid in the early 1960s, then work stopped. As Wikipedia recounts, there was too little experience with shell construction, model tests at ODTÜ showed that even small formwork errors carried risk, the shell specialist Prof. Zerna warned against it, and the association finally preferred a traditional design. Dalokay's idea was built instead at the Faisal Mosque in Islamabad, a competition he won in 1970. In 1967 the association commissioned Hüsrev Tayla and Fatin Uluengin directly; the foundation stone was laid on 30 October 1967, Tayla carried on alone after Uluengin left in 1975, the shell was complete by 1981 and the mosque opened on 28 August 1987.

The plan is the classical Ottoman scheme: a central dome on four great piers with four semi-domes. According to the TDV encyclopaedia the hall is a square of 56.30 metres with an interior height of 44.85 metres; the four minarets are 88 metres tall with three balconies each; the courtyard measures 57 by 38 metres under twenty-six domes. The structure is reinforced concrete clad in travertine, artificial stone and marble. The calligraphy is by Hamit Aytaç, Mahmut Öncü and Emin Barın; the tiles are Kütahya work. Criticism came from both sides: Dalokay's project was found too modern, the built one an imitation of Sinan. Stand under the dome and compare it with Selimiye and Şehzade, then step outside and set the silhouette against Maltepe of 1959. Friday noon is packed; the shoe and dress rules apply. For the next stop go down to Kızılay and take the M2.

Source: TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi, Kocatepe Camii; Wikipedia, Kocatepe Camii, Vedat Dalokay, Hüsrev Tayla.

Take the M2 from Kızılay and get off at Bilkent; according to Wikipedia the Presidency of Religious Affairs and the mosque lie right around the station, and the mosque faces you as you come out. It is named after Ahmet Hamdi Akseki, the president of religious affairs who held the first Kocatepe competition in 1944; that is the link between the two stops. The architect is Salim Alp. The foundation was laid on 19 November 2008 and the mosque opened on Friday 19 April 2013. The Diyanet's figures are large: 80,000 square metres of enclosed space, a courtyard of 20,618 and landscaping of 11,087; room for 5,000 inside. The dome rests on four great piers; the Diyanet gives its diameter as 33 metres, the English Wikipedia as 30. The four minarets are 66 metres tall with an eight-pointed star section.

The architectural language looks to the Seljuks more than the Ottomans: in the Diyanet's words the design draws on Anatolian Seljuk architecture, and eight- and ten-pointed Seljuk stars recur throughout. There is no chandelier; the lighting is solved differently, as you notice under the dome. The calligraphy is by Hüseyin Kutlu; the minbar and pulpit are inlaid with mother-of-pearl. A 2025 assessment in the Selçuk University journal of Turkish studies treats the building as a case of eclecticism in contemporary mosque architecture: a spacious, bright interior, the authors write, but no strong synthesis between tradition and the modern. Judge for yourself how the star-sectioned minarets and wide courtyard read after Kocatepe's dome scheme. It stands beside the Diyanet campus but the mosque itself is open to the public; the grounds are wide, the midday sun harsh and shade scarce. Wait at prayer time and remove your shoes. On the way back take the M2 from the same station to Söğütözü.

Source: Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı; Wikipedia, Ahmet Hamdi Akseki Camii; Wikipedia, Bilkent (Ankara Metrosu); Soy ve Karademir 2025 (DergiPark).

Return on the M2 to Söğütözü and continue to Beştepe; the mosque lies inside the Presidential Complex in Yenimahalle, on Papatya Street in Beştepe neighbourhood. According to the Presidency's announcement it opened for worship on 3 July 2015 and is one of the public spaces of the complex. Contractors' project pages name the architects as Şefik Birkiye and Selim Dalaman of Vizzion Architects with Can Gökoğuz of NNC Mimarlık; Birkiye was also the lead architect of the complex. The official description: a synthesis of modern and Ottoman architecture.

The figures: a footprint of 5,177 square metres; one main dome and four semi-domes; four minarets of around 60 metres, each with two balconies (the article on the complex gives 59.30 metres); three levels, basement, prayer floor and gallery; room for 3,000 at once. Two lifts serve the prayer and ablution areas, with access for disabled visitors. The entrance portal is clad in marble with metal ornament; the calligraphy is by Hüseyin Kutlu, the decoration by Semih İrteş, and the texts are verses on justice and righteousness. For the architectural reading look at the dome arrangement: the central scheme with four semi-domes belongs to the same family as Kocatepe, but the massing and facade are plainer; after the Seljuk stars of Akseki, this returns to the Ottoman scheme. The official source says it is open to the public; even so, this is a state compound, so carry your ID and keep your photographs to the mosque. Give way to the congregation at prayer time and take off your shoes. From here go back to Söğütözü, take the M2 to Kızılay and the M1 to Ulus.

Source: T.C. Cumhurbaşkanlığı; Wikipedia, Beştepe Millet Camii ve Cumhurbaşkanlığı Külliyesi; Zeve proje sayfası; Milliyet.

Take the M2 to Kızılay and the M1 to Ulus. Melike Hatun Mosque stands in Ulus, east of Gençlik Park on the old Hergelen Square; seen from Atatürk Boulevard its four minarets are the newest part of the Ulus skyline. The architect is Hilmi Şenalp of Hassa Mimarlık; construction took four years, 2013-2017, and the mosque opened for worship on 27 September 2017. It is named after Melike Hatun, a benefactress who lived in Ankara in the 14th century and contributed to the city's social and religious life.

The figures: a prayer area for 7,000; a dome 27 metres across, its height given as 43 metres in Turkish sources and 47 in the English Wikipedia; four minarets of 72 metres with three balconies each. The style is classical Ottoman in the English Wikipedia's description; Turkish sources speak of Ottoman, Seljuk and modern mosque architecture used together. The inscriptions on the entrance doors are worked in gold leaf, mother-of-pearl and ivory. For the architectural reading recall the first stop: Maltepe chose the Ottoman silhouette in 1959, and sixty years later Melike Hatun repeats that choice on a far larger scale and in the full classical scheme. The modern side that lost at Kocatepe never won again among Ankara's great mosques, apart from the Seljuk experiment at Akseki. Take that as an observation, not a verdict. The minarets are lit in the evening and show well from Gençlik Park. Silence inside, shoes at the door; like every mosque in Ulus it fills at Friday noon. The last stop, Hacı Bayram, is under ten minutes on foot.

Source: Wikipedia, Melike Hatun Camii; Wikipedia, Melike Hatun Mosque; EBA Okul Dışı Öğrenme Ortamları; Hassa Mimarlık proje sayfası.

From Melike Hatun the walk to Hacı Bayram Square takes under ten minutes. The route ends here for a reason: each of the five new mosques you have seen today speaks through scale, dome and minaret, while the city's best known historic mosque is a 15th-century building of brick and mudbrick walls under a wooden ceiling, at the scale of a neighbourhood. According to the TDV Encyclopaedia of Islam it was built in 831 AH (1427-28), or 1425 by some sources; in 1714, under Ahmed III, Şeyh Mehmed Baba, then head of the lodge, had it rebuilt, and its present form has the character of Ankara mosques of the late 17th and early 18th century. The hall is a rectangle of 20.25 by 13.45 metres, with an enclosed porch and upper galleries to the north. Its east wall leans against the Roman Temple of Augustus; on the south the domed tomb of Hacı Bayram-ı Veli, dated 1429, adjoins the mosque and is visited as part of it.

Inside are a wooden ceiling with rich painted decoration, a plaster mihrab rising to the ceiling, a wooden minbar with openwork railings and 18th-century Kütahya tiles under the muezzin's gallery. In the 2010-2011 restoration the northern annexe was rebuilt and the mosque reopened on 14 February 2011. The day's comparison completes itself here: beside Kocatepe's 88-metre minarets, this single minaret with two balconies shows where Ankara's mosque tradition comes from. Etiquette matters even more here: the square and the mosque are crowded every day and there are queues at the tomb; keep quiet, leave shoes at the door, do not photograph people at prayer and stay away at Friday noon. Ulus metro station is ten minutes from the square.

Source: TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi, Hacı Bayram-ı Veli Külliyesi; Ankara Valiliği, Ankara Vakıf Eserleri; Kültür Portalı; Wikipedia.