Significance
While being acknowledged as a holy site for Turkish Cypriot Muslims, the mosque has also been described by secular contemporary sources as being revered by all Muslims. In an assessment of the environmental and cultural assets of Cyprus, Professor George E. Bowen, a senior Fullbright scholar at the University of Tennessee, is quoted as referring to the Hala Sultan Tekke as the third holiest place for Muslims in the world. This view has been echoed by other sources including the United Nations Development Programme in Cyprus and the Cypriot administration's Department of Antiquities. Others describe the site as fourth most important. As a result of the site being located in the Greek non-Muslim sector of the divided island, pilgrimage visits to the site are infrequent.
In addition to interventions at the imperial level and by high-ranking administrators for the maintenance and development of the complex, during the Ottoman Empire, Ottoman-flagged ships would hang their flags at half mast when off the shores of Larnaca, and salute Hala Sultan with cannon shots.
Read more about this topic: Hala Sultan Tekke
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