KIRKGÖZ HAN KERVANSARAY

About

It is located on the Antalya-Burdur route and in the Kırkgöz area. Completed in 2009, Kırkgöz Han is currently used as a touristic facility. The han, which sits on a rectangular seating area extending in the north-south direction, was built as two building masses with spaces and a covered/shelter section arranged around a large courtyard. The exterior walls of the han are supported by square prismatic buttresses and corner towers designed as masses extending outwards and reaching the height of the facade. The portal in the middle of the south facade is designed as a horizontal rectangular prismatic mass extending outwards, rising above the facade walls; it consists of an iwan opening to the facade in the form of a pointed arch eye, surrounded from the sides and top by wide borders and moldings left plain and unprocessed. The rectangular courtyard, which is accessed through the low arched door opening of the portal and is joined by the pointed barrel vault covered entrance iwan, is a large area surrounded by closed and semi-open spaces; On the east and west sides, there is a double-rowed portico structure, opposite each other, sitting on square-planned piers and connected to each other and the walls by pointed arches, opening onto the courtyard. The two rooms opposite each other in the north-west and north-east corners of the courtyard are rooms covered with pointed barrel vaults. The two rooms on the south wing of the courtyard, adjacent to the portal on both sides, are covered with pointed barrel vaults extending in the east-west direction. It is known that the benefactor of the structure, described as a ribat in the six-line inscription on the courtyard portal, is İsmetü'd-Dünyâ ve'd-Dîn. It is known that İsmetü'd-Dünyâ ve'd-Dîn, who was the daughter of Mugiseddîn Tuğrul Şah, the son of Seljuk Sultan II. Kılıç Arslan, is also mentioned as the benefactor in the construction inscription dated 1232 written in thuluth calligraphy on the marble that was removed from its place and moved to the Public Education Center after the fire that broke out in 1909 at the north gate of the Alaeddîn Mosque in Uluborlu. The Kırkgöz Inn inscription states that the structure was built by the Seljuk Sultan II. Although it is stated that it was built during the time of Gıyâseddin Keyhüsrev (1237-46 AD), only thirteen numbers are written in the last line of the inscription that contains the date. The inscription in question depicts Sultan Gıyâseddin Keyhüsrev II as the owner of a crown, flag and sash, which were never seen among the previous Seljuk sovereignty symbols, and it is also an original and unique example in that the function of the ribat that was built was stated for the first time as a place to host travelers from the east to the west.