Guide
Mehmed Paşa had this tomb built while he was still alive, and the verse inscription over its door is his own composition; when he died in 1594 he was buried in it. It stands on Nişanca Caddesi in Fatih, north-east of his mosque and between the two courtyard gates, octagonal in plan, domed, and built entirely of cut stone.
The porch in front rests on four marble columns with diamond capitals, and the doorway beneath it has an interlocking arch of white and red stone with a palmette motif, with a niche to either side. The lower windows have marble jambs and the upper ones honeycomb grilles. The interior is quite plain; several sources speak of two cenotaphs, but only the pasha's wooden one is there now.
The summer sebil in the courtyard wall in front of the tomb was built together with the mosque: three windows, open above, its outer face clad in marble and its windows closed with simple iron grilles, the marble basins still in place behind them. Small burial grounds lie to the north and south of the tomb; Evliya Çelebi records among those buried there two sons-in-law of Nişancı Mehmed Paşa and several other men of learning.
