Around Lake Beyşehir, from a Hittite Spring to a Seljuk Palace

You approach the Eşrefoğlu Mosque from the town's main street, facing a front wall whose north-eastern corner is cut away at an angle of forty-five degrees. The TDV Encyclopaedia of Islam writes that this cut facade shows the building was set on the main road of the town and that its front was adjusted to fit the road. Before going inside, look at the front wall from a few steps back. The front wall is of cut stone and the others of rubble stone; along the top of the wall to the left of the portal runs a row of decorative crenellations. The decoration of the portal resembles the gateways of the Gök Madrasa and the Çifte Minareli Madrasa in Sivas. Also look at the pointed-arched niche at the base of the minaret, because the water tank of the fountain set inside it is an ancient sarcophagus. Through the portal you first pass into an intermediate space lined with turquoise and purple tiles. The second doorway, opening into the main hall, is clad in glazed brick and mosaic tile, and the encyclopaedia describes this arrangement as unique in Turkish tile art. Follow visiting etiquette, enter between prayer times, take off your shoes and stay quiet inside. When you enter the hall, do not move forward at once; give your eyes a few minutes to adjust to the dim light. The flat timber ceiling is carried by forty-eight wooden columns arranged in six rows. The column capitals have muqarnas carving, and the brackets and beams are decorated with painted ornament, some of which has flaked away over time. The central aisle is wider and higher than the others, and the space above the four central columns was left open. The Kültür Portalı describes the snow well beneath this opening: in winter the snow that gathered on the roof was thrown into the pool in the middle, and its moisture kept the columns from cracking in the heat of the stoves. The snow well was covered with glass in 1965 and lost its function. Then walk up to the mosaic-tiled prayer niche at the far end of the hall, which is 4.58 metres wide and 6.17 metres high. The Beyşehir Municipality considers it larger than all the other tiled prayer niches around Konya. Turquoise is the dominant colour, and the encyclopaedia notes that the motifs below the muqarnas closely resemble those inside the dome of the Karatay Madrasa in Konya. The walnut pulpit beside it was made in the kündekari technique, in which the pieces are fitted together without glue or nails. The raised gallery in the south-western corner, resting on two wooden columns, is also screened with walnut lattices. The second wooden gallery in front of the dome is known to have been commissioned in 1574-75 by the son of an Ottoman vizier. The two inscriptions carry the dates 1296-97 and 1299-1300, which means the building took at least three years to complete. In 2023 the building was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List among the wooden hypostyle mosques of medieval Anatolia. The other four mosques on the list are in Afyonkarahisar, Sivrihisar, Ankara and Kastamonu, and Eşrefoğlu is the largest wooden-columned example among them. On the way out, take a look at the covered market next to the mosque; the municipality writes that it too was completed in 1299 alongside the mosque. From there it is a walk of a few minutes down to the lakeshore.

Source: TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi, Eşrefoğlu Camii; Kültür Portalı, Beyşehir Eşrefoğlu Camisi; Beyşehir Belediyesi, Eşrefoğlu Camii ve Bedesten.

When you walk down from the mosque to the lake, the first structure to greet you is the Stone Bridge built across the lake's outlet. The Beyşehir Municipality writes that the bridge was built between 1908 and 1914 as a regulator dam system. The bridge is 40.70 metres long and 6.35 metres wide, with fifteen arches carried on fourteen piers. The municipality describes it as the first irrigation project built by the Ottoman State and counts it among the symbols of the town. Walk slowly across the bridge and look in each direction in turn. On one side lie the open water of the lake and the mountains in the distance, on the other the Çarşamba stream, which carries the lake's water to the south-east. Wikipedia notes that this stream is the lake's only outlet and that a large regulator was built to irrigate the Konya plain. Then walk a few hundred metres along the shore to where the reed beds begin. The Beyşehir District Governorate writes that the southern and northern shores of the lake are shallow and that its deepest point reaches ten metres. Its surface area is 651 square kilometres, its length 45 kilometres and its greatest width 25 kilometres. This shallow, broad body of water has shaped the life of the town on its shore for centuries. The governorate lists carp first among the fish of the lake, followed by perch, tench, European chub and mirror carp. If you have binoculars, bring them to the shore, because the lake is an important area for birdwatching. According to the municipality, in September and October ducks, grebes, kingfishers, terns, storks and gulls gather in flocks of tens of thousands. By the end of October, with the arrival of coots and geese, the total number of birds on the lake exceeds fifty thousand. The first known breeding colonies of the Dalmatian pelican are also reported to have been recorded on the islands of this lake. Try to pick out the islands you see on the horizon; the municipality counts thirty-three islands of various sizes in the lake and notes that the large ones lie mostly to the west. The largest is Mada Island, which has a village on it, while İğdeli Island, known for its coves of red sand, is the most popular with visitors. Hacı Akif Island has a cave a hundred metres long with stalactites and stalagmites. The surrounding area was declared a national park on 20 February 1993, and the governorate gives the national park area as 88,750 hectares. If you are asking about lake tours or crossings to the islands, get current information from the municipality. This stop is the best place in the day to sit down and rest on the shore. If you want to watch the sunset, consider coming back to this shore in the evening, because the municipality counts the Beyşehir sunset among the rare views of the world for its colours and the length of its setting. Then return to your car and head north on the road to Eflatunpınar.

Source: Beyşehir Belediyesi, Taş Köprü, Beyşehir Gölü, Göl Adaları ve Günbatımı; Beyşehir Kaymakamlığı, Beyşehir Gölü; Wikipedia, Beyşehir Gölü.

According to the Kültür Portalı, Eflatunpınar lies twenty-two kilometres from Beyşehir, near Sadıkhacı. When you leave the car and enter the site, look first at the pool itself, because water is the key to understanding the monument. The Kültür Portalı writes that the structure consists of a large pool built over a natural spring and horizontal channels that carry the water into the pool. The Hittite Monuments website describes the pool as a rectangular area of roughly thirty-four by thirty metres. According to the sources, the monument dates to the last quarter of the 13th century BC and is thought to belong to the reign of the Great King Tudhaliya IV. Then move opposite the high relief wall on the northern edge of the pool and watch it from a distance for a while. The wall is not carved into natural rock; it was built by carefully joining andesite blocks cut to fit one another. The Kültür Portalı notes that what sets it apart from the other rock monuments of the Hittite civilisation is this original stonework and the composition of the reliefs. In the centre you can see two large figures, each with a winged sun disc above it. Around these figures are ten creatures holding up the sun discs, and at the very top there is a huge winged sun disc. Along the base, partly visible, stand five mountain figures, and the three in the middle have holes from which the water emerged. According to the website's interpretation, this arrangement stages the space between heaven and earth like a scene. The size of the relief face is given differently in the sources; Hittite Monuments describes it as roughly seven by seven metres including the figures at the base. Then walk slowly around the pool and look for the smaller figures set into the walls. There is a pair of figures to the right and left of the main facade, and another figure on the pool side of the southern wall. South of the pool stands a triple bull protome that is not in its original position; this piece was used as fill in the wall of a dam built in the Roman period. On the rock a few metres behind the relief wall you can make out the traces of a heavily weathered lion figure. Keep in mind that no inscription has been found at the site, and that its date rests on comparison with the monuments in the surrounding area. Rescue excavations were carried out at the site between 1996 and 2002, and landscaping, restoration and fencing work in 2011-2012. The monument was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List in 2014. The reason given is that it is one of the rare water systems in which flowing water was collected in a central pool and used sparingly when needed. For photographs, try to bring the reflection in the pool into the frame; the reliefs stand out more clearly in light falling from the side. The site is open and has no shade, so take a hat and water with you. From here return to Beyşehir, turn onto the Isparta road and set off for the south-western shore of the lake and Kubadabad.

Source: Kültür Portalı, Beyşehir Eflatunpınarı Hitit Su Anıtı; Hittite Monuments, Eflatunpınar; Beyşehir Belediyesi, Eflatun Pınarı Anıtı.

You reach Kubadabad by turning off the road that runs from Beyşehir towards Isparta and driving about five kilometres inland. Wikipedia places the site within the boundaries of Gölyaka village, on a rocky peninsula midway along the south-western shore of the lake, at the foot of the Anamas Mountains. The Kültür Portalı relates that Sultan Alaeddin Keykubad I, travelling from Kayseri to Antalya, was struck by the beauty of the lake's surroundings and ordered a palace to be built here. The TDV Encyclopaedia of Islam writes that construction took place between 1226 and 1236 and was directed by Emir Sadeddin Köpek, who was also an architect and decorative painter. The Seljuk historian Ibn Bibi records that the sultan drew a sketch and personally fixed the position of the rooms. When you arrive, first walk towards the high point of the peninsula to take in the overall layout. According to the encyclopaedia, the palace settlement spreads over an area of more than eight dönüms, one part on the shore and one on the small island opposite. The shore section covers 5,200 and the island section 3,000 square metres, and the part on the island is known as Kız Kalesi. Then find the two main buildings within the area enclosed by a low wall, the Great Palace and the Small Palace. The Great Palace measures roughly fifty by thirty-five metres, and in front of it a broad terrace extends towards the lake. The encyclopaedia mentions a step thirty-five centimetres high in the central hall that marks off the floor of the iwan forming the throne room. According to Ibn Bibi, the throne room opened onto the reception hall, and during ceremonies a curtain could be drawn to separate the sultan from the assembly. The excavations have also revealed traces of units such as a boathouse, a bath, an oven, a kitchen, storerooms and soldiers' quarters, along with a large hunting park. Notice the thick, solid ground floors at the foot of the walls, because the encyclopaedia suggests that the main living floors, with windows looking out over the lake, stood above them. The remains of channels covered with flat bricks show that a sewage system was used in the buildings. The museum director of Konya, Zeki Oral, first identified the ruins as Kubadabad in 1949. The first scientific excavations were carried out by Katharina Otto-Dorn in 1965 and 1966, and they resumed from 1980 under the direction of Rüçhan Arık. Wikipedia notes that since 2017 the excavations have continued under the direction of Muharrem Çeken. The Konya Governorate writes that large numbers of tiles, ceramics, plaster pieces, glass and coins have been found in the excavations. Come knowing that you will not see tiles here; the figurative tiles are displayed in the museum in the Karatay Madrasa in Konya. The encyclopaedia notes that these tiles covered the walls of the throne room and the other rooms up to a height of two metres. Even so, looking at the palace walls, it is possible to picture the hunting scenes, the cross-legged sultan and the double-headed eagle in these rooms. Because this is an excavation site, do not leave the fenced paths and do not step on the remains. Find out the visiting conditions of the site from the operating institution before you go. On the way back you can drive to Beyşehir with a last look at the lake and close the day on the shore.

Source: TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi, Kubadabad Sarayı; Kültür Portalı, Beyşehir Kubad Abad Sarayı; Konya Valiliği, Kubad-Abad Sarayı; Wikipedia, Kubadabad Sarayı.