Yivli Minare (Fluted Minaret)

Yivli Minare (Fluted Minaret) Review

Dark blue and turquoise tiles decorate the Yivli Minare, a graceful 13th-century cylinder commissioned by the Seljuk sultan Alaaddin Keykubat I. The adjoining mosque, named for the sultan, was built on the site of a Byzantine church. Within the complex are two attractive türbes (tombs) and an 18th-century tekke (monastery), which once housed a community of whirling dervishes. The monastery is now used as an unremarkable art gallery. The Nigar Hatun Türbe (Tomb of Lady Nigar), next to the monastery, though built in Seljuk style, is a 15th-century copy. The medrese (theological school) adjacent to the Fluted Minaret has now been glassed in under a bus-station-style roof and is a tourist-oriented shopping center. On offer is the standard tourist fare throughout Turkey—pottery, copperwork, carpets, and tiles—but the prices are better than at most other resorts along the coast.