World Heritage Identification Number: 1694
World Heritage since: 2023
Category: Cultural Heritage
WHE Type: Religious Sites & Sacred Architecture
Transboundary Heritage: No
Endangered Heritage: No
Country: 🇹🇷 Türkiye
Continent: Asia
UNESCO World Region: Europe and North America
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Wooden Hypostyle Mosques of Medieval Anatolia: A Unique Blend of Architecture and Craftsmanship
The Wooden Hypostyle Mosques of Medieval Anatolia, inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2023, represent a remarkable fusion of architecture and craftsmanship that dates back to the late 13th and mid-14th centuries. Located across various provinces in modern-day Turkey, these five mosques stand as testaments to the ingenuity and skill of the Seljuk artisans who constructed them.
More to come…UNESCO Description of the World Heritage Site
This serial property is comprised of five hypostyle mosques built in Anatolia between the late 13th and mid-14th centuries, each located in a different province of present-day Türkiye. The unusual structural system of the mosques combines an exterior building envelope built of masonry with multiple rows of wooden interior columns (“hypostyle”) that support a flat wooden ceiling and the roof. These mosques are known for the skilful woodcarving and handiwork used in their structures, architectural fittings, and furnishings.UNESCO Justification of the World Heritage Site
Criterion (ii): The Wooden Hypostyle Mosques of Medieval Anatolia exhibit an important interchange of ideas and practices related to the specific typology of wooden hypostyle religious architecture that originated in the early Islamic architecture of the Arab region and Central Asia and was brought to the region of Anatolia during the medieval period. The five mosques exerted a considerable influence throughout Anatolia and beyond between the 14th and the early 20th centuries.
Criterion (iv): In the context of Islamic religious architecture that is dominated by stone and brick buildings, the Wooden Hypostyle Mosques are a rare surviving type of religious architecture that once flourished in medieval Anatolia. Their high achievement in timber construction techniques, use of wood as a structural element, interior decoration, woodcarving, and artwork together represent an outstanding testimony that illustrates a significant stage in the history of Islamic architecture.
Encyclopedia Record: Wooden Hypostyle Mosques of Medieval Anatolia
The Wooden Hypostyle Mosques of Medieval Anatolia are a World Heritage Site consisting of five Seljuk mosques in Anatolia dating back to the late 13th and mid-14th centuries.Additional Site Details
Area: 0.61 hectares
Number of Components: 5
(iv) — Outstanding example of a type of building or landscape
Coordinates: 38.7550361111 , 30.529575
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© Dosseman, CC BY-SA 4.0 Resized from original. (This derivative is under the same CC BY-SA license.)
