I spent a bit over three hours in Íznik in October of 2023. That was enough time to stop by three of the town's gates, explore several mosques, peruse the museum collection at the historic soup kitchen building, stroll around the central town a bit, and glance at the Roman theater from behind the fence. I also initially planned to go to the Tile Museum, but that was curtailed due to the amount of time I spent on breakfast in the morning.

Of the gates, the Lefke on the eastern side is the most interesting to explore, while Yenişehir on the southern edge is the most fortress-like. The Green Mosque is the most eye-pleasing on the outside and quite simple on the interior; Mahmut Çelebi Mosque, for instance, inverts that by being relatively basic on the outside, but more ornate inside. The Hagia Sophia showcases its Byzantine origins as a multi-nave church and offers a few decorative features from different eras.

The compact and well-curated collection of the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts (Google Maps confusingly calls it "Íznik Museum" even though there is a separate "Museum of Íznik" near the southern gate) covers the story of the town and the region as well as its main industrial outputs of tiles and pottery. The historic soup kitchen that is mentioned in the tentative submission is not really seen anywhere, and the building has been clearly renovated very recently to become a museum. I was the only visitor, outnumbered one to three by the attendants, one of whom actually turned on the lights in the building for me and then rejoined his coworkers in their meal by the ticket gates.

Beyond defined points of interest, Íznik is more or less a typical Turkish provincial town. It is possible that attaining a full WH status will bring an avalanche of visitors, but on the day I was there, I could have as well been on another planet as compared to the commotion of Istanbul. A tourist with a big camera attracted quite a number of curious looks - and several "Where are you from?" inquiries, a couple of them executed via Google Translate on the phone.

I did not go to every mosque mentioned in the tentative submission, but feel that I covered the key sites in the town reasonably thoroughly. My thumbs-up for the submission is very marginal and based on recognition of the long history of Íznik. If I was not aware of that history, I would probably consider the town not especially outstanding.