Works ongoing to restore mosque in ancient city of Beçin

MUĞLA

A 600-year-old mosque in the ancient city of Beçin, which is on the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List, is being restored.

Professor Kadir Pektaş, chief of the excavation team, told the state-run Anadolu Agency that the restoration process has been continuing in the city, which is located in the western province of Muğla’s Milas district and dates back to 2,000 B.C.

The city earned its importance during the Menteşeoğulları Sultanate in the 13th and 14th centuries.

Pektaş said they plan to reopen Yelli Mosque, the largest building in a complex, which was built with a madrasah (religious school) and a bath.

According to Pektaş, Yelli Mosque was one of the striking structures not only in the ancient city but also in the whole of Anatolia at the time.

Noting that the mosque became unusable over time due to some factors caused by both natural events and people, Pektaş said, “As part of the restoration work, we use local materials like in its original. The cracks in the mosque were reinforced with an architectural stitching technique.”

He also said that they discovered exciting architectural details about the mosque during their restoration work.

He said that the survival of the building, despite major earthquakes in the region, was due to the outstanding architectural success of that period.

The archaeological site in Beçin has been systemically excavated since 1972. In 2000, a hoard of coins, 60,000 of which were from the Ottoman period, was found.

It is not only the largest hoard that has ever been found in Turkey in archaeological excavations but also the largest cache of Ottoman coins that has ever been found, according to UNESCO.