Khan on Humeitepe
As well as the caravanserai, there was a second khan in Balat, located on the southern foothills of Humeitepe and, partially, at the former Lion Harbor. For a while, the ruin was called “Pireli Han,” (“inn full of fleas” or “suspicious inn”) but this must be a modern name. Khans were the location of a town’s bazaar and inns for travelers. Typically, they consist of an open inner courtyard surrounded by many small rooms or large halls spread across a single floor or multiple floors. This was the structure of the khan on Humeitepe, too, but only the southwestern half of the building is known. The northeastern section is covered in debris. In one part of the inn, the vaults are still intact. To this day, the northernmost rooms are occasionally used by a cattle herder, who guides his cows into the shade of the ruin on hot days.
The entire building must have spanned an area of about 33 x 29 meters, with the inner courtyard measuring 16.5 x 21 meters. The smaller rooms in the southern area may have been used for accommodation, while the large hall in the west was probably a storage space. A narrow staircase on the eastern interior wall led from the courtyard to the roof of the one-story building. For a long time, researchers believed that the khan was a reloading point for goods transitioning from sea to overland transport. This would mean that the Lion Harbor was still connected to the Büyük Menderes River by a channel in the sixteenth century CE. Geoarchaeological studies suggest that the area began to dry up intensively from the seventh century CE onwards. A powder magazine from a fifteenth-century naval gun found in the old basin of the Lion Harbor, however, indicates that the area must have been navigable at least to some extent. To this day, the basin regularly floods in spring.
Architectural features indicate that the khan at the Lion Harbor / on Humeitepe must have been built before the caravanserai. It probably dates to the first half of the fourteenth century CE. Like many buildings from that time, it has walls made of many repurposed building stones (spolia) and bricks. Nothing is currently known about the name of the khan in the Middle Ages.
Text: Lisa Steinmann
References
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K. Wulzinger, Das islamische Milet, Milet 3,4 (Berlin 1935).
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H. Brückner – A. Herda – M. Müllenhoff – W. Rabbel – H. Stümpel, Der Löwenhafen von Milet - eine geoarchäologische Fallstudie, in: S. Ladstätter – F. Pirson – T. Schmidts (eds.), Häfen und Hafenstädte im östlichen Mittelmeerraum von der Antike bis in byzantinische Zeit. Neue Entdeckungen und aktuelle Forschungsansätze. Istanbul, 30. 05. – 01. 06. 2011 2, Byzas 19 (Istanbul 2014) 773–806.
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A. Durukan, Menteşe Beyliği Zamanında Balat (Antik Miletus / Palatia), in: H.B. Konyar – N. Yavuzoğlu-Atasoy (Hrsg.), Beylikler Dönemi Kültür ve Sanat, Sanat Tarihi Derneği Yayınları 9 (Istanbul 2014) 83–134.