Eşrefoğlu Mosque is a 13th-century mosque in

Beyşehir Beyşehir () is a large town and district of Konya Province in the Akdeniz region of Turkey. The town is located on the southeastern shore of Lake Beyşehir and is marked to the west and the southwest by the steep lines and forests of the Ta ...

Konya Province Konya Province ( tr, ), in southwest Central Anatolia, is the largest province of Turkey. The Province, provincial Capital (political), capital is the city of Konya. Its traffic code is 42. The Kızılören solar power plant in Konya will be ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

It is situated north of the

Beyşehir Lake Beyşehir () is a large town and district of Konya Province in the Akdeniz region of Turkey. The town is located on the southeastern shore of Lake Beyşehir and is marked to the west and the southwest by the steep lines and forests of the Taur ...

History

During the last years of

Seljuks of Rum fa, سلجوقیان روم () , status = , government_type = Hereditary monarchyTriumvirate, Triarchy (1249–1254)Diarchy (1257–1262) , year_start = 1077 , year_end = 1308 , p1 ...

, various governors of Seljuks enjoyed a partial independency. They established their own semi independent principalities named

Anatolian Beyliks Anatolian beyliks ( tr, Anadolu beylikleri, Ottoman Turkish: ''Tavâif-i mülûk'', ''Beylik'' ) were small principalities (or petty kingdoms) in Anatolia governed by beys, the first of which were founded at the end of the 11th century. A sec ...

Eshrefids The Eshrefids or Ashrafids ( Modern Turkish: ''Eşrefoğulları'' or ''Eşrefoğulları Beyliği'' ) was one of the Anatolian beyliks. Capital Its capital was in Beyşehir. Foundation It was one of the frontier principalities established by O ...

(1280-1326) was a small beylik in center west

Anatolia Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The r ...

. After 1288, Süleyman Bey, the second bey of Eshrefids rebuilt the city of Beyşehir as a capital of his beylik. Although his beylik was relatively an unimportant political power, the city flourished as one of the cultural centers of Seljuk world. In 1296, he commissioned a mosque in Beyşehir, one of the greatest mosques during the Anatolian beylik period. In 1302 he died and buried in a sepulcher next to the mosque.

Technical details

The plan of the mosque is rectangular; . But the corner at the north east side is enlarged to make room for the main portal. The dimensions of the portal are . There are two smaller gates and 35 windows. The roof is supported by 42 wooden columns. The length of each column is . Their diameter is . After seven centuries, unlike most other Seljuk wooden buildings, this mosque survives and it is used for regular services. The wooden columns are made of

cedar Cedar may refer to: Trees and plants *''Cedrus'', common English name cedar, an Old-World genus of coniferous trees in the plant family Pinaceae *Cedar (plant), a list of trees and plants known as cedar Places United States * Cedar, Arizona * ...

and according to oral tradition they were soaked in the Beyşehir lake for six months before being used in the building. At the center of the mosque there is a snow pit. Up to relatively recent times (1940s), the pit was used to be filled with snow from the nearby mountains. This snow both cooled the mosque during the summers and supplied the necessary humidity to the wooden infrastructure.

Unesco World Heritage Tentative list

On 15 April 2011 the mosque was included in the list of

World Heritage A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...

tentative list. The justification statements is "''Esrefoglu Mosque includes all the main elements of early Anatolian Turkish architecture. The building is the biggest, best preserved wooden columned and roofed mosque in Islamic World.''"UNESCO Official page
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Gallery

File:Beysehir from Lake Beysehir.jpg, View of Beysehir from the lake, the Eşrefoğlu Mosque is on the right with the minaret. File:Beysehir Eshrefoglu Camii 4369.jpg, Eşrefoğlu Mosque Exterior File:Beysehir Eshrefoglu Camii 4341.jpg, Eşrefoğlu Mosque Interior general view File:Beysehir Eshrefoglu Camii 4264.jpg, Eşrefoğlu Mosque Interior with müezzin mahfili File:Beysehir Eshrefoglu Camii 4223.jpg, Eşrefoğlu Mosque Interior with müezzin mahfili File:Beysehir Eshrefoglu Camii 4219.jpg, Eşrefoğlu Mosque Interior with snow pit File:Beysehir Eshrefoglu Camii 4232.jpg, Eşrefoğlu Mosque Interior with balcony File:Beysehir Eshrefoglu Camii 4233.jpg, Eşrefoğlu Mosque Interior with balcony details File:Beysehir Eshrefoglu Camii 4221.jpg, Eşrefoğlu Mosque Interior painting under balcony File:Esrefoglu1.jpg, Entrance of the mosque File:Esrefoglu4.jpg, Wooden columns File:Esrefoglu3.jpg, Mihrab File:Esrefoglu5.jpg, File:Esrefoglu6.jpg, Minber File:Beysehir Eshrefoglu Camii 4215.jpg, Eşrefoğlu Mosque Interior door to minber File:Konya Ince Minare Medrese Museum 2897.jpg, Ince Minare Medrese Museum Doors from Beysehir

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Esrefoglu Mosque History of Konya Province Tourist attractions in Konya Province Seljuk mosques in Turkey World Heritage Tentative List for Turkey Mosques completed in 1299 Anatolian Beyliks architecture

History

Technical details

Unesco World Heritage Tentative list

See also

Gallery

References