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The Süleymaniye crowns one of İstanbul's seven hills and dominates the Golden Horn, providing a landmark for the entire city. Though it's not the largest of the Ottoman mosques, it is certainly one of the grandest and most beautiful. It's also unusual in that many of its original külliye (mosque complex) buildings have been retained and sympathetically adapted for reuse. Commissioned by Süleyman I, known as 'the Magnificent', the Süleymaniye was the fourth imperial mosque built in İstanbul and it certainly lives up to its patron's nickname. The mosque and its surrounding buildings were designed by Mimar Sinan, the most famous and talented of all imperial architects. Sinan's türbe (tomb) is just outside the mosque's walled garden, next to a disused medrese(seminary) building.

The mosque was built between 1550 and 1557. Its setting and plan are particularly pleasing, featuring gardens and a three-sided forecourt with a central domed ablutions fountain. The four minarets with their 10 beautiful şerefes (balconies) are said to represent the fact that Süleyman was the fourth of the Osmanlı sultans to rule the city and the 10th sultan after the establishment of the empire. In the garden behind the mosque is a terrace offering lovely views of the Golden Horn and Bosphorus. The street underneath once housed the mosque complex's arasta (street of shops), which was built into the retaining wall of the terrace.

This "vast religious complex called the Süleymaniye...blended Islamic and Byzantine architectural elements. It combines tall, slender minarets with large domed buildings supported by half domes in the style of the Byzantine church Hagia Sophia (which the Ottomans converted into the mosque of Aya Sofya)" (481 Traditions and Encounters: Brief Global History).

Located in the center of city-plans throughout the history of Islam, mosques have become the main element of more developed complex structures called kulliya. In the kulliyas (social complexes), functional structures are located such as mosque, madrasa, school, library, muvakkithane (time keeper-house), cemetery, hospital, imaret (poorhouse), tabhane (guest house), bazaar, han (inn), Turkish bath, and fountain. It is possible to see the most beautiful examples of these social complexes in the Ottoman Empire. Suleymaniye social complex has an important place among these examples.

Virtual visit by using the smartboards or projectors in the classrooms. http://www.3dmekanlar.com/tr/suleymaniye-camii.html
A group of students make a research about the mosque as a pre-activity and implement a survey throughout the class. While doing the virtual visit they give the information that they prepared beforehand.
After completion of the visit students compare their previous knowledge with the newly learned ones.