The Seljuk Han of Anatolia
KURUCESME HAN
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DISTRICT (IL)
42 KONYA
LOCATION
This han is located 34 km from Konya along the Konya-Beyşehir Road and 200 m from
the road itself.
OTHER NAMES
The name of this han means the "Dry Fountain or stream" han,
a possible reference to a now
dried-up water source. There is a certain confusion as to the name of this han:
Erdmann and Yavuz call it the Kizilören
Han, while Bektaş labels it as the Kuruçeşme
Han. It is also known as the Emir Kandemir Han.
DATE
1207-1210 (dated by an inscription of 9 lines over the hall door)
The inscription states that it was "Built in the time of Kayhüsrev ibn Kilic
Arslan, Sultan of the Mainland and the seas".
REIGN
OF
Giyaseddin Kayhüsrev I
PATRON
The inscription of the person who commissioned it is illegible.
BUILDING TYPE
Covered with open courtyard (COC)
Covered hall and courtyard of the same width
3 parallel vaults running perpendicular to the back wall
6 bays of vaults
DESCRIPTION
The han faces east to Beyşehir and lies parallel to the road. It is one of
the links in the necklace of 4 hans along this short stretch of road: Kizilören,
Kuruceşme, Yunus (no longer extant) and Altinapa (now submerged by the
waters behind the Altinapa Dam).
The
courtyard has 5 cells on each side.
The mosque is in a room to the left of the entrance passageway. It has
a small window. It is flush with the ground and measures 4 x
5.5 m. The entrance is structured like a protruding vestibule.
On the raised loading dock platform of the courtyard, there are remnants of a
tandir clay oven, used for heating, cooking and baking. It consists of a pit
sunk into the platform, about 15 in deep, and connected to a horizontal shaft to
provide air.
There does not appear to be a bath. There is a well 1 km towards Beyşehir.
DECORATION
The main door to the hall has a deep niche with a pointed arch. There are
many reuse spolia capitals and lintel stones.
DIMENSIONS
820 m2
STATE OF CONSERVATION, CURRENT USAGE
Although the foundation walls are standing, it mostly in a ruined state.
BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES
Bektaş, p. 82-83
Erdmann, p. 33-36, no. 3
Hillenbrand, fig. 6.62, p. 553
Kuban, p. 239
©2001-2008, Katharine Branning; All Rights Reserved. No part of this site may be reproduced in any form without written consent from the author.
