Bursa Day Trip from Istanbul (Green Bursa)

Overview

Bursa day trip from Istanbul: cross by car ferry to Yalova, then visit the Grand Mosque, Green Mosque, Green Tomb and Silk Market, with an Iskender kebab lunch.

Bursa Day Tour from Istanbul starts from your hotel with pick-up service. Our staff will come and pick you up from your hotel and drive to the meeting point to meet the group and guide, who will inform you about the day. Then drive from the meeting point to the car-ferry port for the ferry from Istanbul to Yalova, which takes about one hour. From Yalova we drive by bus to Bursa, another hour. Around 10:30 you arrive in Bursa, where we visit the Grand Mosque of Bursa, the Green Mosque, the Green Tomb and the Silk Market. Lunch is in a local restaurant famous for its Iskender kebab. At the end of the tour we return to Istanbul the same way and drop you at your hotel.

Brief info about the sites: Bursa, the first capital of the Ottoman Empire. Osman Bey, born in a town of Bursa, conquered the towns around Bursa in 1299, the year regarded as the founding of the Ottoman Empire, which survived for over six hundred years. Bursa lies in the north-west of the Anatolian peninsula, south-east of the Sea of Marmara; its most important peak is Uludag (the legendary Mount Olympus), a ski resort and national park. Mount Uludag (2,543 m), 36 km south of Bursa, is one of the country's favourite winter sports centres; its rich flora and fauna have made it a national park, and trekking and camping are popular in summer. It was known as Olympus Misios in ancient times and in mythology as the place where the gods watched the Trojan War. Ulucami (Grand Mosque): constructed between 1396 and 1400 by Sultan Bayezit, fully of cut stone, with very thick high walls, 12 heavy piers and 20 domes; the most classical and monumental example of multi-domed mosques and, at 318 square metres, the largest interior among Turkish mosques. Green (Yesil) Mosque: constructed in 1419-1420 and named after the green-turquoise tiles of its decoration; one of the most important Ottoman structures in Bursa, famous for its adornments even more than its architecture. Green Tomb: the symbol of Bursa and one of the most beautiful examples of Ottoman tomb architecture; an octagonal structure reached by a marble stair, covered by a lead dome on a high drum, unique for its tile decoration, with a walnut door made in the interlocking technique that is a masterpiece of Ottoman woodwork.