Esrefoglu Mosque

Esrefoglu Mosque

Located in Konya Province, Turkey, the Eşrefoğlu Mosque sits just 100 meters north of the Beyşehir Lake. During the last years of the Seljuks of Rum, various governors established semi-independent principalities, called Beyliks, in Anatolia. One of these principalities was the Eshrefids, who ruled central west Anatolia from 1280 to 1326.

In 1288, Süleyman Bey, the second bey of the Eshrefids, rebuilt the city of Beyşehir as his beylik's capital. Although his beylik was not politically significant, the city became one of the cultural centers of the Seljuk world. In 1296, he commissioned a mosque in Beyşehir and was buried next to it after his death in 1302.

Esrefoglu Mosque

The mosque has a rectangular plan measuring 31.8 by 46.55 metres (104.3 by 152.7 feet), but the northeast corner is enlarged to accommodate the main portal. The portal measures 7.1 by 10.1 metres (23 by 33 feet), and there are two smaller gates and 35 windows. The roof is supported by 42 wooden columns, each measuring 7.5 metres (24.6 feet) in length with a diameter of 40 cm (16 in).

After seven centuries, Esrefoglu Mosque has been preserved and it continues to be used for regular services. The wooden columns are made of cedar and based on oral tradition they were soaked in a nearby lake for six months before being utilized in the building. In the center of the mosque there is a snow pit. Up to relatively recent times (1940s), the pit was used to be filled with snow from mountains near by. This snow both cooled down the mosque during summers and supplied enough moisture to infrastructure made out of wood.

On April 15, 2011 the Esrefoglu mosque was included in the tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The justification for its inclusion is that "Esrefoglu Mosque includes all the main elements of early Anatolian Turkish architecture." It's an impressive building and is the largest wooden columned mosque surviving in the Islamic world."