In a dome, interior explains that which encloses it. The interior is the symbol of the exterior; the dome, a manifestation of externality that rises to the sky over the square and its variations, which represent pure reason and simplicity. As a structural element, the dome has a long past in the history of architecture. Pantheon in Rome, Hagia Sophia in Byzantium, and, again in the Renaissance, Michelangelo’s St. Mark’s are structures that embody the dome. The dome, first used in the monumental buildings of Rome and Byzantium, was widely implemented, especially in places of worship, long before the Turks settled in Anatolia.

THE DOME IN OTTOMAN HISTORY
Together with the arrival of the Turks in Anatolia, during the period of the Principalities in particular, flat-roofed mosques predominated in what could be regarded as a continuation of the Central Asian tradition of building. But the Ottomans diverged from this tradition, using instead in their places of worship the domed structures traditional in Anatolia.