Divriği Great Mosque

The Great Mosque and Hospital at Divriği was built in 1228-9 by the local Mengüjekid rulers, and it was among the first sites in Turkey inscribed by UNESCO, in 1985. What justifies that is the stone carving on its four portals. The relief is extraordinarily deep and three-dimensional, in forms with no clear precedent or successor - vast palmettes, interlacing stems, rosettes, medallions and vegetal shapes that swell out of the wall in high relief and have been described variously as baroque, as fantastical and as simply unclassifiable within Seljuk-era work. The north portal is the most elaborate. Inside, the mosque has a stone-vaulted hall on sixteen piers, each vault different, and the adjoining darüşşifa hospital has a domed court with a pool and an elaborately carved portal of its own. The building sits in a small, remote town far up the Euphrates valley, and it has been under a protective structure during long restoration.

What you actually see

• The carved portals - deep, unclassifiable stone relief.
• The vaulted hall - sixteen piers, each vault different.
• The hospital - the darüşşifa court and its portal.
• The town setting - a small place far up the valley.

When to go

May to June and September to October - Divriği is high and winters are severe. Check whether restoration structures are up, as they have obscured the portals for periods.

Honest expectations

It is genuinely remote - three hours from Sivas, and the town has minimal facilities. Restoration has repeatedly enclosed parts of the exterior. It is a working mosque; dress and behave accordingly.

Nearby

Sivas and its Seljuk medreses are three hours west; the Euphrates valley runs east.