Tarihi Taşhan

Why the Architecture Matters

Taşhan belongs to the category of covered caravanserais (kapalı kervansaray) — the winter-season shelters where camel caravans and their drivers could rest behind thick walls. The enclosed hall is square in plan, roofed with a vaulted system resting on twelve corner supports and four massive central elephant-foot columns. A clerestory opens above the center, flooding the interior with natural light. External buttress projections reinforce the walls, giving the entire structure a fortress-like appearance from the outside.↗↗

What makes it truly unique is its perfectly square plan: among all surviving Anatolian Seljuk caravanserais and inns, no other known example uses this geometry. It stands as an architectural one-of-a-kind, documented in sources from the provincial culture directorate.↗↗

The original complex also had a courtyard (avlu) section, the summer wing of the caravanserai, but this part was destroyed over the centuries. Only the enclosed winter hall survives, restored to its original form.↗

On the Caravan Road

During the Seljuk and Ottoman periods, this stretch of the Afyonkarahisar–Konya corridor was a key junction linking north-south and east-west trade routes across central Anatolia. Prof. Dr. Mustafa Güler of Afyon Kocatepe University describes the Taşhan as the principal overnight stop on a major connecting road. Caravanserais like this one were operated by vakıf (endowment) foundations, which funded their upkeep and provided lodging, food, and security for travelers and their animals.↗↗

As modern road networks shifted away from these old paths, the caravanserai lost its purpose and fell into disrepair for decades, a fate shared by many inland Seljuk monuments.↗

Visiting Today

After a major restoration by the General Directorate of Foundations completed in 2016, Taşhan reopened not as a museum but as Taşhan Aile Çay Bahçesi — a family tea garden where locals and visitors sit among the 13th-century columns and enjoy tea and light refreshments. It's a lively, informal atmosphere that keeps the building in daily use rather than behind glass. The entrance is wheelchair-accessible.↗

The caravanserai sits on İnönü Caddesi in Çay's Aşağı Mahalle, within the small district center. Çay itself is a quiet town of about 30,000 people, easily reached by car from Afyonkarahisar city in roughly 30 minutes along the Konya road. The nearby Taş Cami (Stone Mosque), originally the madrasa of the same külliye, is another highlight of the Seljuk complex.↗↗

Nearby in Çay

Beyond the Seljuk monuments, the Çay district offers access to the nearby Eber Lake — a vast wetland known for its floating reed islands, herons, wild ducks, and freshwater fishing. The Çağlayan Park at the foot of the Sultan Mountains features a 28-meter waterfall and is a beloved local summer retreat. For those interested in ancient history, the area around Çay is widely identified as the site of the Battle of Ipsus (301 BC), where Alexander the Great's successors fought the battle that reshaped the Hellenistic world.↗