Amasya
The impressive Büyük Ağa Medresesi (1488) has an octagonal layout, rarely seen in Ottoman medrese (seminary) architecture. It was built by Sultan Beyazıt II's chief white eunuch Hüseyin Ağa, also known as Grandagha. It still serves as a seminary for boys who are training to be hafız (theologians who have memorised the entire Koran) and is not open to the public.
Just before the medrese is a small, and not totally natural, waterfall that's a hit with local families.
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Looming above the northern bank of the river is a sheer rock face with the conspicuous rock-cut Tombs of the Pontic Kings. The tombs, chiselled deep into…
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Amasya's museum packs in treasures from the Chalcolithic era up to the Byzantine age in its ground-floor galleries. Look out for the famous bronze…
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The graceful Sultan Beyazıt II Cami (1486) is Amasya's largest külliye (mosque complex), with a medrese (seminary), fountain, imaret (soup kitchen) and…
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Perched precariously atop rocky Mt Harşena, Amasya's kale (castle) offers magnificent views down the valley. The much-repaired walls date from Pontic…
Sabuncuoğlu History of Medicine Museum
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Built as a psychiatric hospital in 1309 by Ilduş Hatun, wife of the İlkhanid Sultan Olcaytu, the Darüşşifa (Bimarhane) may have been the first place to…
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The Gök Medrese Cami was built from 1266 to 1267 for Seyfettin Torumtay, the Seljuk governor of Amasya. The eyvan (vaulted recess) serving as its main…
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The pretty Mehmet Paşa Cami was built in 1486 by Lala Mehmet Paşa, tutor to Şehzade Ahmet, the son of Sultan Beyazıt II. It's rather simple inside but…
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The Hazeranlar Konağı, constructed in 1865 and restored in 1979, was built by Hasan Talat, the accountant of governor-poet Ziya Paşa, for his sister,…
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This early Ottoman mosque (1419) follows a twin-domed plan that was a forebear in style to the famous Yeşil Cami in Bursa. Colourful painted stalactite…
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The pretty Mehmet Paşa Cami was built in 1486 by Lala Mehmet Paşa, tutor to Şehzade Ahmet, the son of Sultan Beyazıt II. It's rather simple inside but…
3. Sabuncuoğlu History of Medicine Museum
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Built as a psychiatric hospital in 1309 by Ilduş Hatun, wife of the İlkhanid Sultan Olcaytu, the Darüşşifa (Bimarhane) may have been the first place to…
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Amasya's old belediye (town council) building was built in the late Ottoman era and has a lovely stone facade.
5. Tombs of Mythridates I, Ariobarzan & Mythridates II
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The tombs of the first three kings of the kingdom of Pontus are the most impressive in the cliff face, though up close there's nothing much to see. Climb…
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The Gümüşlü Cami (1326) is the earliest Ottoman mosque in Amasya, but has been rebuilt several times: in 1491 after an earthquake, in 1612 after a fire,…
0.46 MILES
Looming above the northern bank of the river is a sheer rock face with the conspicuous rock-cut Tombs of the Pontic Kings. The tombs, chiselled deep into…
0.47 MILES
Perched precariously atop rocky Mt Harşena, Amasya's kale (castle) offers magnificent views down the valley. The much-repaired walls date from Pontic…