Eşrefoğlu Mosque

The Eşrefoğlu Camii was built in the 1290s and it is the largest and best preserved of the wooden hypostyle mosques of medieval Anatolia - a type in which the roof rests not on stone piers but on rows of wooden columns, here more than forty of them, cedar and pine, with carved capitals and stalactite brackets supporting beams and a flat ceiling. Kütahya and İznik tile decorates the mihrab and the sultan's box; the wooden minbar is original and finely carved. The oddest feature is in the middle of the floor: an open well, the karlık, into which snow was packed in winter, its melting keeping the timber humid enough not to crack through the dry summer, with a skylight above it. The building has never had its roof replaced. It was inscribed by UNESCO in 2023 as one of the Wooden Hypostyle Mosques of Medieval Anatolia, together with four others.

History

In the last years of the Seljuks of Rum, the Eshrefids ruled a small beylik in central western Anatolia from 1280 to 1326, and after 1288 their second bey, Süleyman, rebuilt Beyşehir as his capital. In 1296 he commissioned this mosque, one of the greatest of the Anatolian beylik period, and on his death in 1302 he was buried in a tomb beside it (Wikipedia, Eşrefoğlu Mosque).

What's there

• The forty wooden columns - the hypostyle hall and its capitals.
• The snow well - the karlık in the floor under a skylight.
• The tiled mihrab - Kütahya and İznik work in the sanctuary.
• The carved minbar - the original wooden pulpit.

When to go

April to June and September to November. Between prayer times; Friday midday is closed to sightseeing. The interior is dim, so bright days help.

Before you go

It is a working mosque - shoes off, modest dress, headscarf for women. The interior is dark by design and photography without flash is difficult. Beyşehir is an hour and a half from Konya.

Nearby

Lake Beyşehir is at the town's edge; Eflatunpınar is 22 km along the northern shore.

Key facts