ABOUT BURSA CİTY
Bursa is a city in northwestern Turkey and the governmental center of Bursa Province. With a population of 1,194,687 (2000 census), it is Turkey's fourth largest city. It was known in the antiquity and the medieval period with the name Prusa. The city is known as "Yesil Bursa" (meaning "Green Bursa") from its beautiful parks and gardens located throughout the city. The city is famous for its ski resorts (on the mountain of Uludag), the mausoleums of Ottoman sultans, the surrounding fertile plain, thermal baths and Karagoz & Hacivat shadow puppets. It is also the home of some famous Turkish foods, especially chestnut candy, peaches, and a meat dish called İskender kebap.

Uludag University is located in Bursa. After some of the universities in Istanbul it is the most prominent university in the region. It is founded in 1975 under the name Bursa Universitesi. The name changed to Uludag Universitesi in 1982. Currently there are about 47000 students registered in 2005-2006 academic year.

Ulu Camii (The Great Mosque)

Ulu Camii is the major mosque of Bursa and a landmark of early Ottoman architecture. It was built by Ali Neccar in 1396-1399, at Sultan Bayezid I's command. The mosque is large and rectangular, with twenty domes arranged in four rows of five supported by twelve columns. Supposedly twenty domes are built instead of twenty separate mosques that Sultan Bayezid I promised for winning the Battle of Nicopolis. It has two minarets. Inside the mosque there are 192 monumental wall inscriptions written by famous calligraphers. There is also a fountain (sadırvan) inside the mosque where worshipers can perform ritual ablutions before prayer; the dome over the sadırvan is capped by a skylight, creating a soft, serene light below. The story of the sadırvan inside the mosque, which is unheard of, that the land belong to an old lady who objected to her store taken by padisah. Because consent is not given for the piece of land, prayer cannot be conducted on it thus a sadırvan is built. Architecturally sadırvan helps to have light inside the mosque that is big.

The horizontally spacious and dimly lit interior is designed to feel peaceful and contemplative. The subdivisions of space formed by multiple domes and pillars create a sense of privacy and even intimacy. This atmosphere contrasts with later Ottoman mosques (see for example the work of Suleyman I's chief architect Sinan). These later mosques have increasingly elevated central domes, which create a vertical emphasis that is intended to be more overwhelming, in order to convey the power and majesty of the Ottoman Empire. It is a beautiful piece of architecture.