HIZIR İLYAS KIOSK
Turkiye KAYSERİ 13th Century
1241/42
Currently in ruins, this structure rises on top of Hıdırellez Hill, which is known to be a höyük. The east-west oriented rectangular structure stands on a fine dressed stone socle on the south due to the slope of the terrain.
Built with fine dressed stones, the monument has corner towers, cylindrical and polygonal, and polygonal buttresses in the middle of the east, north and west façades.
The marble portal protrudes out in the middle of the south façade and is flanked with a series of varying borders and mouldings. Borders feature floral motifs and geometric compositions. On the lateral sides of the portal is a mihrabiyya topped with a hood of four rows of muqarnas; in the spandrels is a rosette. In the tympana of the hoods is a geometric composition of interlacing octagons. The colonnettes formerly carrying the arch of the portal niche have dice-like capitals and their shafts are ornamented with a geometric composition of interlacing right-angled bands.
The portal survives up to the springing level of the arch. In the middle of the structure is a north-south rectangular hall covered with a pointed barrel vault. The south part of this hall makes a right-angled turn westward while the north end makes a right turn eastward. The northern branch opens as a pointed-barrel-vaulted iwan into the hall; the arms forming the L-shape are also covered with pointed barrel vaults penetrating into a cross-vaulted junction.
The masjid in the southeast corner is a north-south rectangular hall covered with a pointed barrel vault; over the mihrab on the south wall is a slit window. In the northwest corner are two adjoining rooms covered with an east-west pointed barrel vault.
The iwan-like branch in the northeast was actually the kitchen as inferred from the round-arched hearth placed beneath the flight of stair leading to the roof. The battlements of the roof do not exist any more.
As the portal fell down some marble pieces with muqarnas as well as a fragment of its inscription were taken to the Kayseri Museum. The extant inscription fragment reveals that the kiosk was built in 1241/42 in the reign of Sultan Giyath al-Din Kay Husraw II.
KAYSERİ
