Hala Sultan Tekke in Larnaka (Cyprus)
N 34° 53.123 E 033° 36.597
36S E 555736 N 3860502
Hala Sultan Tekke or the Mosque of Umm Haram is a very prominent Muslim shrine near Larnaca on Cyprus. Umm Haram (Hala Sultan is the Turkish language name) was the Islamic prophet Muhammad’s foster-mother and the wife of Ubada bin al-Sam...
Waymark Code: WM6BYM
Location: Cyprus
Date Posted: 05/11/2009
Views: 22
Mosque Hala Sultan Tekke is an Islamic shrine, unusual in that it is dedicated to a woman, built between 1760-1796. Overlooking the Salt Lake of Larnaka, where flamingoes stop en route from Africa in spring and autumn, it is a peaceful, beautiful spot for a mosque.
The woman in question was Umm Haram, aunt of an associate of the Prophet Mohammed, who was thrown from her mule and died here in 649 during the first Arab invasion of Cyprus. A place of pilgrimage for Muslims, the building did not actually become a site of veneration until the Ottoman conquest of Cyprus in 1571.
The mosque is an important place of Muslim pilgrimage, ranking immediately after the shrines of Mecca, Medina and Al Aqsha in Jerusalem.
Archaeologists think that in ancient times the site was originally a temple to Artemis, founded where the important commodity of salt was manufactured.