Sultan Han

On the open steppe of central Anatolia, a stone wall some 50 metres wide and a soaring marble gateway announce Sultan Han, the largest medieval caravanserai in Turkey and one of the masterpieces of Seljuk architecture. Behind the plain, fortress-like walls lies a world of carved stone: a portal 13 metres high framed by honeycomb muqarnas vaulting and interlaced geometric bands, a broad open courtyard with a small mosque raised on arches at its centre, and a vast vaulted hall beyond.

The caravanserai was built in 1229, as its inscription records, for the Seljuk sultan Kayqubad I, whose reign was the high point of the Sultanate of Rum. The architect was Muhammad ibn Khawlan of Damascus. It stood on the great trade road that ran from the capital, Konya, through Aksaray and on toward Persia, one of a chain of fortified inns that let caravans travel safely across Anatolia. Funded by pious endowments, such caravanserais offered travellers lodging, food and fodder for their animals, along with a mosque and baths. Their walls also made them strongholds when needed. After a fire, Sultan Han was repaired and enlarged in 1278 by the governor Seraceddin Ahmed Kerimeddin during the reign of Kaykhusraw III.

The plan follows the classic Seljuk pattern of a summer and a winter section. Through the east gate one enters an open courtyard roughly 44 by 58 metres, ringed by arcades for animals and carts, with rooms for travellers, two baths and storerooms. At its centre stands the kiosk mosque, a square stone prayer room lifted on four carved arches; it is the oldest example of the type in Turkey and one of the finest pieces of Seljuk ornament, with an elaborately carved mihrab. Across the courtyard a second portal, as richly carved as the first, with a muqarnas niche, joggled voussoirs and interlocking star patterns, opens into the covered winter hall. Here rows of piers divide the space into five aisles, with the wider central aisle covered by a ribbed barrel vault and crowned by a dome whose oculus once provided the only light and air. The whole complex covers nearly 4,900 square metres.

Getting there

Sultan Han stands in the town of Sultanhanı, in Aksaray Province, on the road between Konya and Aksaray, about 40 km west of the city of Aksaray. The nearest airport is Konya (KYA), about 91 km to the west.