Turbék originally started out as a shrine over Suleiman’s supposed burial spot in the 1570s and endured as a prosperous settlement until its destruction by the Habsburg army at the end of the 1680s.

Pap said the find is remarkable because the Ottomans tended to occupy existing settlements in the territories they conquered instead of building their own.

No such settlement from Ottoman Hungary has been discovered since. In 1566, Hungarian-Croatian nobleman Miklós Zrínyi and his 2,500 troops were able to hold off the advancing army of 100,000 Turks led by Suleiman in the fortress of Szigetvár for an entire month.

The sultan’s ultimate goal was conquering Vienna, but the month-long battle took its toll on the Ottoman army, costing them 20,000 men and in turn, the conquest. More than a century would pass before the Turks would attempt to capture Vienna again. Zrinyi and his troops put up a heroic fight, but realising that they could not hold up the sultan’s army any longer, they galloped out of the castle on the morning of September 8 and fell in battle.

Experts say the ailing Suleiman died in his tent a mere two days before the fall of Szigetvár, but his death was kept secret for 48 days.

The sultan’s insides were buried at the site of the Ottoman camp with the burial spot marked.

Pap said archaeologists had been searching for the sultan’s tomb for 110 years, adding that the find was a result of the use of modern technology and that the exploration team took on a new approach to the search.

He said the announcement of the discovery of the tomb would have a “huge impact” in Turkey, adding that plans are under way for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to visit the excavation site next year.

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MTI photo: Koszticsák Szilárd