Kırkgöz Han

Standing at the head of the place where the waters rise to the surface at Kırkgöz on the Antalya-Burdur road, Kırkgöz Han is one of the best preserved caravanserais to have survived from the Seljuk period. According to the West Mediterranean Development Agency it lies 30 kilometres from Antalya at Pınarbaşı and was the second stop after Antalya on the old Antalya-Afyon road; the first was Evdir Han to the south. The Culture Portal gives its address as Bıyıklı Mahallesi. Since the restoration completed in 2009 the han has been in use as a tourist facility. The District Governorship presents the building as one of the important stops on the historic Silk Road route. The building's identity is written in the six-line inscription on the courtyard portal. The inscription defines the building as a ribat and names its founder as a lady called İsmetü'd-Dünya ve'd-Din. According to the Culture Portal she was the daughter of Mugiseddin Tuğrul Şah, son of the Seljuk Sultan Kılıçarslan II, and her name also appears as founder in a mosque inscription of 1232 at Uluborlu. The inscription states that the building was erected in the time of the Seljuk Sultan Gıyaseddin Keyhüsrev II, that is between 1237 and 1246; since only "thirteen" can be read in the date line, the exact year is unknown. The Culture Portal considers this inscription unique on two counts; it describes the sultan as the owner of the crown, standard and belt, insignia not seen among earlier Seljuk rulers, and it states the ribat's function for the first time explicitly as a place where travellers from east to west would be hosted. The han sits on a rectangular plan running north-south and consists of two masses; the rooms arranged around a wide courtyard, and the covered shelter to the north of the courtyard. The outer walls are supported by square-prism buttresses reaching the full height of the facade and by corner towers; this is why from a distance it looks like a fortress. The portal in the middle of the south facade is a horizontal rectangular mass projecting from the facade, in the form of a pointed-arched iwan framed by wide borders left plain and uncarved. Compared with the marble-decorated gate of Evdir Han, the Kırkgöz portal is austere; that austerity is the building's character. From the segmental-arched doorway one passes into the entrance iwan with its pointed barrel vault, and from there into the rectangular courtyard. On the east and west sides of the courtyard, facing each other, stand double rows of arcades resting on square piers and linked by pointed arches. The Culture Portal describes the courtyard as a wide space surrounded by closed and semi-open rooms. The rooms in the northwest and northeast corners and those flanking the portal are covered with pointed barrel vaults. During the restoration the mouth of a cistern below floor level was uncovered in the middle of the courtyard, and the remains of a ceramic kiln were found in the southeast corner. The District Governorship reads these finds as a sign that the han served not only for lodging but also as a place of production and daily life. The covered shelter is entered through the segmental-arched door on the north side of the courtyard. It is a single continuous space running east-west under a pointed barrel vault, and the vault is reinforced by six pointed arches running north-south. In winter the caravan's animals and loads stayed here, while the travellers used the rooms around the courtyard. Standing under the dim vault and looking along the row of arches is the plainest statement of Seljuk stonemasonry. The han takes its name from the water beside it. According to the district page of the Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism, Döşemealtı is named after Kırkgöz Lake, which feeds the Düden Waterfall; the settlement, founded as Kırkgöz-Yeniköy in 1934 with families arriving from the Korkuteli side, lies 20 kilometres from Antalya on the Antalya-Burdur highway. According to the same page the governor of the day, Haşim İşcan, had 60 settlement houses built in the village, and families arriving from Cyprus were housed in them. The spring waters form a broad lake in front of the han. A walk along the lakeshore after the han is a natural part of the route. The lake and its springs are the city's drinking water catchment. Obey the warning signs and protection fences as you go down to the shore, and do not enter the water. Because the han is run as a facility, entering its courtyard is generally free, but visiting hours and the events held in the courtyard depend on the operator; ask about the current situation before going. For access it is enough to follow the Antalya-Burdur road northwards; check the Metropolitan Municipality's transport page for public bus lines to Döşemealtı and their timetables. Since Evdir Han, Karain Cave and Ariassos stand on the same axis, it is possible to follow the Seljuk caravan road as far as Pisidia in a single day.