Sultan Alaeddin Camii

Standing on Alitaşı Street in the inner citadel of Ankara Castle, beyond Zindan Gate, Sultan Alaeddin Mosque is the city's oldest known mosque. It has no foundation inscription; the Arabic inscription on the side panel of its wooden minbar is read as 574 AH (1178) or 594 AH (1197-98) and ties the minbar to the reign of Muhyiddin Mesud, ruler of Ankara. The name is thought to come from a repair under Alaeddin Keykubad I; inscriptions over the prayer hall door record repairs in the early 1360s and in 1433-34. It is a rectangular building without posts, under a flat wooden ceiling, known for its muqarnas-hooded Seljuk mihrab uncovered in 1984 and its minbar in imitation kündekari technique. In the garden a brick mihrab cut into the citadel wall belonged to the first mosque on the site. The General Directorate of Foundations last restored it in 2008.