Kurtkulağı Kervansarayı

The Kurtkulağı Caravanserai is an Ottoman staging inn in the Kurtkulağı neighbourhood south-east of Ceyhan, standing on the old caravan road that linked Adana with Aleppo. TRT Haber gives its distance from the town of Ceyhan as 12 kilometres. An article by the art historian Hayriye Akıl, published in 2006 in the journal of Çukurova University, explains that armies, merchants and caravans used this road along the same route from antiquity onwards. After crossing the river at Misis, the road ran south-east through Kurtkulağı to the Gulf of İskenderun and from there to Syria. According to the article, Kurtkulağı is also identified with a road station listed in Roman itineraries 15 Roman miles from Misis. The date of the building is disputed, and it is worth knowing both views. Turkish Wikipedia, based on an inscription said to be kept in the Adana Museum, writes that the caravanserai was commissioned by Hüseyin Pasha in 1659 and that its architect was Mehmed Ağa. Hayriye Akıl, however, reports that although there is a space for an inscription above the entrance, the inscription itself is missing, and that the village elders say it was removed during the French occupation. Akıl dates the building to 1704, relying on a decree of Sultan Ahmed III dated 1704 in the Adana court registers and on the endowment deed of the Karamort complex. This decree orders the construction of a fortress and a caravanserai at the Kurtkulağı station and the protection of the caravans. In the Ottoman period Kurtkulağı was a link in the system of guarded passes and staging posts set up for road security. As Akıl relates, the Kurtkulağı pass, also called the gate of Çukurova, began to be repaired by the state in 1712, houses were built for the guards and the buildings were enclosed by a masonry wall. Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent set up his camp here in 1535 on his way back from the Baghdad campaign, and Evliya Çelebi wrote that he came from Adana by way of Şahmeran Castle and stayed at the Kurtkulağı station. Kurtkulağı kept its role as a staging post until 1812. TRT Haber describes the staging inn as a kind of post station where horses and officials were kept and messages were passed on. The caravanserai belongs to the closed type without a courtyard. Excluding the projections on its eastern side, the rectangular building measures 45.75 by 23.60 metres and is built entirely of cut stone, as solid as a fortress. Its north, south and west walls are supported inside and out by stone buttresses, which give the exterior the air of a castle. The entrance is through a monumental portal in the middle of the east façade, opening outwards with a pointed arch. On either side of the entrance hall are two rooms with hearths, cupboard niches and toilets, each lit by two pointed-arched windows, and they are thought to have been used for lodging. Inside, the main space of the building, a large hall, greets you. The hall is divided into three aisles by twelve stone piers set in two rows, round arches rest on the piers and the roof consists of barrel vaults running lengthwise. Along the foot of the walls run the raised platforms where travellers and their goods stayed, and between the buttresses are hearth niches whose hoods project outwards. Akıl counts seven hearth niches on the west wall and six each on the north and south walls. Because light enters only through the slits in the upper part of the walls, the interior is dim; once your eyes adjust, the order of the vaults and piers becomes clear. The decoration is very plain and function comes first; only the small colonnettes and arches above the doors show the stone carving. Akıl regards this building, constructed at the beginning of the 18th century when the building of caravanserais was declining, as one of the last examples of Ottoman caravanserai architecture. The building was registered in 1976, placed under the protection of the General Directorate of Foundations and repaired in 1984; Wikipedia states that it was restored again in 2006. TRT Haber reports that after restoration by the Regional Directorate of Foundations, the caravanserai, with its pool, fountain, lodging rooms and large hall, was being prepared to open to tourism. About 100 metres south of the caravanserai there is also a mosque with two domes, built according to its inscription by Haydar Ağa in 1601. Begin your visit by walking around the building from the outside; the rhythm of the buttresses and the proportions of the portal are seen best from the garden, a little way off. Then go inside, stand in the middle of the hall and wait for your eyes to adjust to the dim light. Check the current visiting conditions, and whether it is open, with the provincial directorate of culture and tourism before you go. Kurtkulağı is reached by road via Ceyhan, and it makes a good final stop on a day trip along the Ceyhan River together with Misis, Sirkeli Höyük and Yılankale.