Caravanserai: khan by the theater
When you visit the theater, you soon notice the building adjoining the impressive structure: the Caravanserai, used as a restaurant and café today. It is a khan that underwent comprehensive restoration work in 1897. Khans were the location of a towns bazaar and inns for travelers. Typically, they consist of an open inner courtyard surrounded by many small rooms grouped across a single floor or multiple floors. This building probably dates to the second half of the fourteenth century CE. Ottoman records reveal that it was already dilapidated and disused in 1583. It is said to have stood in an area called Tahıl Pazarı (grain market).
The khan by the theater is around 24 x 29 meters in size. As today, the building was accessible through a gate, 2.7 meters wide, that faces the theater to the north. A small room on the right side may have been used as a guard house. Apart from this room, almost all of the vaulted chambers and halls open towards the inner courtyard, which measures around 16 x 11 meters. A staircase in the southeastern corner of the complex led (and still leads) to the flat roof of the single-story building, which was enclosed by a cornice. Some chambers had fireplaces, so researchers assume that they were used as accommodation for travelers. The large halls in the west and south may have been goods storage spaces. Their walls consisted of repurposed stones and bricks clad in mortar or plaster.
Text: Lisa Steinmann
References
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K. Wulzinger, Das islamische Milet, Milet 3,4 (Berlin 1935).
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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.