ÖRESİN HAN

1156-92

This han on the Aksaray-Nevşehir route is also known as Tepesi Delik Han and it is currently used as a touristic facility.

The han comprises only the covered section rising on a rectangular area oriented in the northwest-southeast direction. It was entirely renovated in the course of restorations in the recent years and it has thus lost all its structural properties. In the recent restorations, the cardinal vaults intersecting in the centre creating a cruciform layout were made discernible on the roof and were extended up to the four façades raised like shield walls. This anomaly created by the restorations causes a misperception from the silhouette of the structure as if having four portals.

The new portal in the middle of the southeast façade is a rectangular prismatic mass protruding slightly and rising taller than the roof level. The hood framed with plain mouldings and bands has a pointed arch. The level tympanum over the lowarched doorway is a marble panel with a three-line inscription within a round arched niche.

The low-arched doorway opens into the covered section, which is arranged into five aisles separated with twenty-four square piers interconnected with each other and the walls with round arches and covered with barrel vaults. The central aisle and the middle one of the lateral aisles extending at a right angle create a square bay in the middle transforming the interior into a cruciform layout. The square bay is covered with a dome rising on pendentives. The dome with ashlar masonry is concealed within an octagonal drum rising over the roof level and covered with an octagonal pyramid. Four windows on the drum illuminate the interior.

The sections outside the two aisles intersecting in the middle are divided into three rectangular areas of equal size and each covered with a barrel vault.

There is no construction inscription surviving; an inscription discovered probably in the course of repairs is placed in the niche of the portal. Not only the inscription is dubious to belong to the han but also its calligraphy is not careful enough. The sultan mentioned in the inscription, Qilich Arslan, son of Masud, is the Sultan Izz al-Din Qilich Arslan II, son of Rukn al-Din Mas‘ud I. The number given for the date in the last line reads four in the Ones digit but the rest is not legible. In case this inscription is agreed to belong to the han, then the han’s construction should be dated to 1156-92 when Izz al-Din Qilich Arslan II was in power.