Külliye in the context of Anatolian Seljuk architecture

The Blue Mosque, officially the Sultan Ahmed Mosque (Turkish: Sultanahmet Camii), is an Ottoman-era historical imperial mosque located in Istanbul, Turkey. It was constructed between 1609 and 1617 during the rule of Ahmed I. It attracts a large number of tourists and is one of the most iconic and popular monuments of Ottoman architecture.

The mosque has a classical Ottoman layout with a central dome surrounded by four semi-domes over the prayer hall. It is fronted by a large courtyard and flanked by six minarets. On the inside, it is decorated with thousands of Iznik tiles and painted floral motifs in predominantly blue colours, which give the mosque its popular name. The mosque's külliye (religious complex) includes Ahmed's tomb, a madrasa, and several other buildings in various states of preservation.

The Green Mosque (Turkish: Yeşil Camii), also known as the Mosque of Mehmed I, is a part of a larger complex (külliye) on the east side of Bursa, Turkey, the former capital of the Ottoman Turks before Constantinople was captured in 1453. The complex consists of a mosque, a mausoleum known as the Green Tomb, a madrasa, a public kitchen, and a bathhouse. The name Green Mosque comes from its green and blue interior tile decorations. It is part of the historic UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Mimar Sinan (Ottoman Turkish: معمار سينان, romanized: Mi'mâr Sinân; Turkish: Mimar Sinan, pronounced [miːˈmaːɾ siˈnan]; c. 1488/1490 – 17 July 1588) also known as Koca Mi'mâr Sinân Âğâ, ("Sinan Agha the Grand Architect" or "Grand Sinan") was the chief Ottoman architect, engineer and mathematician for sultans Suleiman the Magnificent, Selim II and Murad III. He was responsible for the construction of more than 300 major structures, including the Selimiye Mosque in Edirne, the Kanuni Sultan Suleiman Bridge in Büyükçekmece, and the Mehmed Paša Sokolović Bridge in Višegrad, as well as other more modest projects such as madrasa's, külliyes, and bridges. His apprentices would later design the Sultan Ahmed Mosque in Istanbul and the Stari Most bridge in Mostar.

The son of a stonemason, he received a technical education and became a military engineer. He rose rapidly through the ranks to become first an officer and finally a Janissary commander, with the honorific title of Sinan. He refined his architectural and engineering skills while on campaign with the Janissaries, becoming expert at constructing fortifications of all kinds, as well as military infrastructure projects, such as roads, bridges and aqueducts. At about the age of fifty, he was appointed as chief royal architect, applying the technical skills he had acquired in the army to the "creation of fine religious buildings" and civic structures of all kinds. He remained in this post for almost fifty years.

Mimar Hayruddin (Hayruddin the architect; born c. 1500) was an Ottoman chief architect (Turkish: mimar) and civil engineer under the rule of Sultan Bayezid II (reigned 1481-1512/AH 886-918) and Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent (reigned 1520-1566).

A student of the celebrated Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan, Hayruddin was responsible for the construction of the Stari Most (Mostar Bridge) in the city of Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Bayezid II Mosque in Istanbul, the Külliye Complex of Sultan Bayezid II in Edirne, and another in the town of Amasya.

The Nuruosmaniye Mosque (Turkish: Nuruosmaniye Camii) is an 18th-century Ottoman mosque located in the Çemberlitaş neighbourhood of Fatih district in Istanbul, Turkey, which was inscribed in the Tentative list of World Heritage Sites in Turkey in 2016.

Designed by a Greek non-Muslim architect named Simeon Kalfa (tr), the Nuruosmaniye mosque was the first monumental Ottoman building to exemplify the new Ottoman baroque style, which introduced baroque and neoclassical elements from Europe. The mosque's ornamentation and its curved courtyard display its baroque influences. The dome of the mosque is one of the largest in Istanbul. The mosque is part of a larger religious complex, or külliye, acting as a centre of culture, religion, and education for the neighborhood.

Early Ottoman architecture developed through several stages during the 14th and 15th centuries, prior to the advent of what is generally considered "classical" Ottoman architecture in the 16th century. Ottoman architecture began as a continuation of earlier Seljuk and Beylik architecture while also incorporating local Byzantine influences. The new styles took shape in the capital cities of Bursa and Edirne as well as in other important early Ottoman cities such as Iznik.

Three main types of structures predominated in the early period: single-domed mosques (e.g. the Green Mosque in Iznik), "T-plan" buildings (e.g. the Green Mosque in Bursa), and multi-domed buildings (e.g. the Great Mosque of Bursa). Religious buildings were often part of larger charitable complexes (külliyes) that included other structures such as madrasas, hammams, tombs, and commercial establishments.

Imaret, sometimes also known as a darüzziyafe, is one of several names used to identify the public soup kitchens built throughout the Ottoman Empire from the 14th to the 19th centuries. These public kitchens were often part of a larger complex known as a külliye, which could include hospices, mosques, caravanserais, and colleges. The imarets provided food that was free of charge to specific groups of people and unfortunate individuals. Imarets were not invented by the Ottomans but developed under their rule as highly structured groups of buildings.