Kırkgöz Han

About Kırkgöz Han

Kırkgöz Han is a Seljuk-era han on the Antalya to Burdur road at Kırkgöz, in Bıyıklı, Döşemealtı. Its restoration was completed in 2009, and the Culture Portal notes that it is currently used as a tourist facility. The han stands on a rectangular plan running north to south and was built as two blocks: rooms arranged around a wide courtyard, and a covered shelter. Its outer walls are supported by square buttresses and corner towers that rise to the full height of the facade. The portal in the middle of the south facade projects beyond the walls and opens through a pointed arch into an iwan. The courtyard has double rows of arcades on its east and west sides, with vaulted rooms at its corners and beside the portal. During the restoration the mouth of a cistern was found below the middle of the courtyard, along with the remains of a ceramic kiln in its south-east corner. The covered shelter on the north side is a single long vaulted hall strengthened by six pointed arches. The six-line inscription on the courtyard portal calls the building a ribat. It is said to date from the reign of the Seljuk Sultan Gıyasettin Keyhüsrev II, although the dated last line of the inscription reads only thirteen. The inscription describes the sultan as the owner of a crown, banner and belt, symbols not seen before among Seljuk royal insignia, and states that the ribat was built as a place to host travellers going from east to west.