Five Middle Ages mosques on UNESCO list

ISTANBUL

Culture and Tourism Mehmet Nuri Ersoy announced yesterday that five Middle Ages mosques with wooden pillars and beams in the Anatolian cities of Konya, Eskişehir, Afyonkarahisar, Kastamonu and Ankara were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List at the 45th UNESCO World Heritage Committee meeting held in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia.

After the ancient city of Gordion was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO on Sept. 18, Konya's Beyşehir Eşrefoğlu Mosque, Eskişehir's Sivrihisar Ulu Mosque, Kastamonu Koşu Village's Mahmut Bey Mosque, Ankara's Ahi Şerefeddin (Aslanhane) Mosque and Afyonkarahisar’s Ulu Mosque are now on the UNESCO World Heritage list, too.

The historical mosques also became Türkiye's first series of cultural assets on the World Heritage List.

“Another good news. We registered our series of cultural assets on the UNESCO World Heritage List for the first time. After Gordion, the wooden pillar and beam mosques of Anatolia, which date back to the Middle Ages, became a World Heritage Site. We increased the number of cultural assets on the list to 21,” Ersoy said.

Reflecting the early examples of wood-supported mosques in Anatolia, the mosques have common features even though they are located in different cities. These well-preserved historical structures reflect Anatolian life and draw attention with their ornamentations.