Karaman: Capital of the Karamanids and the Thousand and One Churches

On this page

1. What is Karaman?
2. How do you get to Karaman?
3. Where should you stay in Karaman?
4. What type of climate does Karaman have?
5. When is the best time to visit Karaman?
6. What is the history of Karaman?
7. What is Karaman famous for?
8. What are the historical places of Karaman?
9. What are the best things to do in Karaman?
10. What are the best places to visit in Karaman?
11. Frequently asked questions about Karaman
12. What do the official records say about Karaman?

What is Karaman?

Karaman is a province in south-central Türkiye and the name of its capital, a quiet industrial city on the southern edge of the Konya plain. North of the city the extinct volcano of Karadağ rises out of the steppe; south of it the land climbs into the limestone ranges of the Taurus and drops into the deep valley of the Göksu around Ermenek.

For about two centuries this was the capital of the Karamanids, the Turkmen dynasty that ruled much of central and southern Anatolia after the Seljuks and was the Ottomans’ most stubborn rival. The city’s castle, mosques, tombs and the Hatuniye Madrasa date mostly from that period. The poet Yunus Emre spent his last years here, and his tomb stands beside a mosque in the city centre.

The 2002 provincial inventory sums up the province as a place whose past reaches back to around 8000 BC, with both historical and natural attractions, a fast-industrialising economy and a tourism potential still waiting to be used. That is still a fair description. Karaman sees few foreign visitors, which is part of its appeal: you can have Binbirkilise or the granaries of Taşkale entirely to yourself.

Places to visit in Karaman

Binbirkilise

Binbirkilise, the Thousand and One Churches on Karadağ near Karaman: Byzantine basilicas…

Karaman Castle

Karaman Castle: the three-walled citadel on a prehistoric mound in Karaman, rebuilt…

Hatuniye Madrasa

Hatuniye Madrasa in Karaman: built in 1382 by Nefise Sultan, daughter of…

Yunus Emre Mosque and Tomb

The Yunus Emre Mosque and Tomb in Karaman: a Karamanid mosque with…

Taşkale Granaries

Taşkale's granaries: over 250 grain stores cut into a cliff east of…

How do you get to Karaman?

By rail: Karaman is the southern end of the high-speed line from Konya. High-speed trains run from Karaman station via Konya to Ankara and to Istanbul (Halkalı), which makes the train the easiest way to arrive from either city. The station is on Atatürk Caddesi in the north of the city centre.

By air: Karaman has no airport. The nearest is Konya Airport (KYA), north of Konya and roughly 120 km from Karaman, with domestic flights from Istanbul. Overseas visitors usually connect through Istanbul Airport or Sabiha Gökçen.

By road: Karaman is about 100 km south of Konya. The road south crosses the Taurus by the Sertavul Pass to Mut and on to the Mediterranean coast in Mersin province, the old caravan route along which the Karamanids built Kozak Han and Sertavul Han. Intercity coaches connect Karaman with Konya, Ankara, Istanbul, Antalya and Mersin.

Getting around: The castle, the Hatuniye Madrasa, Aktekke and the Yunus Emre Mosque are all within walking distance of each other in the centre. Binbirkilise, Taşkale and Ermenek need a car or a taxi.

Where should you stay in Karaman?

Stay in Karaman city. It has a modest choice of business hotels near the centre and the station, and from there Binbirkilise, Canhasan and Taşkale are all day trips. If you plan to explore the Göksu valley and the rock tombs around Ermenek, the town of Ermenek, in the mountains to the south-west, has a few small hotels. Many travellers simply visit Karaman as a day trip from Konya by train.

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What type of climate does Karaman have?

Karaman has a dry continental climate, shaped by its altitude of around 1,000 m and by the Taurus, which cut it off from the Mediterranean. Summers are hot and dry with cool nights; winters are cold, and snow is common in the city and lies longer on Karadağ and in the mountain districts. Rain falls mainly in winter and spring.

When is the best time to visit Karaman?

April to June and September to October. Spring is the best time for Karadağ and Binbirkilise, when the volcanic slopes are green and the walking between ruins is comfortable. In May the city holds the Turkish Language Festival (Türk Dil Bayramı). Summer suits the high pastures (yayla) of the southern districts, but the plain and the ruins can be very hot at midday. Winter brings snow and short days, and minor roads to the villages can be difficult.

What is the history of Karaman?

The plain around Karaman was farmed very early. At Canhasan, 13 km from the city, three mounds were excavated between 1961 and 1970 by a British team under David H. French. The 2002 inventory describes Canhasan III as an aceramic settlement about 100 m across, dated to around 6500 BC, where people lived in rectangular mud-brick houses with timber supports, plastered the walls and floors with mud and sometimes painted them with red ochre or pressed pebbles into them. They ate cattle, sheep and wild animals, and grew bread wheat, barley, lentils and vetch. At Canhasan I the inventory records seven building levels running from the Late Neolithic (around 6000 BC) into the Chalcolithic, two-storey houses with storage on the ground floor and living space above, and the first copper. The mound was abandoned around 4300 BC and resettled only in Hellenistic, Roman and early Byzantine times.

In antiquity the town was Laranda, a name thought to come from the Luwian Larawanda, “sandy place”. The surrounding land was Lycaonia (see our Lycaonia guide), and the region appears in the Acts of the Apostles: Paul and Barnabas came to Derbe, which most scholars place at Kerti Höyük north-east of Karaman. In the Byzantine centuries churches and monasteries spread across Karadağ, the area now called Binbirkilise.

The Seljuks took the town in the early 12th century. In 1256 Karaman Bey captured it and gave it his name, and his dynasty, the Karamanids, made it their capital. The historian Yılmaz Öztuna, quoted by the provincial culture directorate, describes them as the most important, largest and longest-lasting of the Anatolian Turkmen beyliks, at their height ruling some 146,000 km² of central and southern Anatolia. In 1277 Karamanoğlu Mehmet Bey issued his famous decree that only Turkish should be spoken in the council, at court and in public life, which is why Karaman celebrates the Turkish language every May.

The Karamanids fought the Ottomans for more than a century. Bayezid I executed Alaeddin Bey in 1388, Mehmed II took the city in 1468, and the last resistance ended in the 1480s. Karaman then became the name of a large Ottoman province governed from Konya. The modern province was separated from Konya in 1989.

What is Karaman famous for?

The Karamanids. The city kept the name of its dynasty, and their mosques, tombs and the Hatuniye Madrasa are the core of its old centre.

The Turkish language. Mehmet Bey’s decree of 1277 made Karaman a symbol of Turkish as a language of state. The inventory notes that the language festival held in the city has a tourist role as well as a scholarly one.

Yunus Emre. The 13th–14th-century Sufi poet, whose simple Turkish verse is still learnt by every schoolchild in Türkiye, is buried here by local tradition.

Binbirkilise. The “Thousand and One Churches” on Karadağ are among the most important groups of Byzantine church ruins in central Anatolia.

Industry. Inside Türkiye, Karaman is also known as a centre of the food industry, especially biscuit making.

What are the historical places of Karaman?

In Karaman city

Karaman Castle. Built on a mound in the Hisar quarter with outer, middle and inner walls, probably at the end of the 11th or start of the 12th century. See our Karaman Castle guide.

Hatuniye Madrasa. Built in 1382 by Nefise Sultan, daughter of the Ottoman sultan Murad I and wife of Karamanoğlu Alaeddin Bey, with one of the finest carved marble portals of the period. See our Hatuniye Madrasa guide.

Aktekke (Mader-i Mevlana) Mosque. A Karamanid mosque of 1371 with a single central dome and a tall minaret. Three domes resting on two marble columns and the side walls cover the porch, and a Mevlevi headdress (sikke) is carved over the marble arch of the doorway. In a separate space on the left inside are 21 stone cenotaphs belonging to Rumi’s mother and relatives.

Yunus Emre Mosque and Tomb. A domed Karamanid mosque in the Kirişçi quarter with the poet’s tomb attached. See our Yunus Emre Mosque and Tomb guide.

Sadettin Ali Bey Mescidi. A small Seljuk building of cut stone on Hastane Caddesi, built according to its inscription in 1247 by Sadettin Ali Bey, son of Ebu Bekir. It has a tomb section and a prayer room, and a stone mihrab with muqarnas flanked by spiral colonnettes.

Araboğlu Mosque. Built between 1374 and 1420 in the Tapucak quarter. The inventory notes a stone mihrab with muqarnas, and one surviving dragon-headed waterspout out of what were probably six.

Dikbasan Mosque. A Karamanid mosque of 1493 whose flat ceiling rests directly on 12 columns, with a wooden minbar of interlocking geometric panels.

İbrahim Bey Tomb. Beside the İbrahim Bey İmaret, an octagonal tomb with a richly carved portal of white marble, holding the plaster cenotaphs of Karamanoğlu İbrahim Bey II, Kasım Bey and Alaeddin Bey. The tomb of Alaeddin Bey, executed by Bayezid I in 1388, stands separately in the Hisar quarter.

Karaman Museum. Founded in 1961 and today in the city centre, with archaeological and ethnographic halls. The prize exhibits are the Neolithic and Chalcolithic finds from Canhasan, and the museum also displays the naturally preserved body of a Byzantine-period woman brought from the Manazan caves. Roman grave stelae stand in the garden.

Around the province

Binbirkilise. Byzantine churches, monasteries and cisterns on the slopes of Karadağ, about 30–37 km north of the city. See our Binbirkilise guide.

Derbe (Kerti Höyük). The mound near Ekinözü village, north-east of Karaman, identified in 1956 by Michael Ballance as Derbe, the town Paul and Barnabas visited. The remains are still underground, so there is little to see beyond the mound itself.

Dereköy (Fisandon) Church. 7 km south of the city, built into a rock mass, probably in the 9th–10th century. The inventory describes it as having the Greek-cross plan of Constantinople, but with an upper structure built in a completely different way: of stone only, with a central dome, and outer faces enlivened by rows of arches, some blind and some with windows. It calls the church a valuable work of the local style that departs from the general rules of Byzantine architecture.

Hartapus Monument. On Kızıldağ, between Süleymanhacı and Adakale, a rock relief of the Hittite-era king Hartapus seated on a throne facing Lake Hotamış, with hieroglyphic inscriptions, a fortress ruin and carved footprints nearby.

Taşkale and Manazan. More than 250 granaries cut into a cliff, and a five-storey Byzantine cave settlement in the next valley. See our Taşkale granaries guide.

Ermenek. A mountain town south-west of Karaman. Its castle was made by walling in a steep, high rock refuge; one of its two entrances is a flight of 72 steps cut into the cliff. Ermenek’s Great Mosque was built in 1302 by Karamanoğlu Mehmet Bey and has a door of plane wood carrying fine calligraphy, and the Akça Mescid of 1300 keeps a double door of plane wood, which the inventory calls a fine example of Karamanid woodwork.

Gökçeseki rock tombs. On the steep slopes north and south of the Göksu, in the Ermenek, Sarıveliler and Başyayla districts, are hundreds of Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine rock tombs. Near Gökçeseki (Çamlıca) village, some burial benches are closed with single-piece limestone lions lying on top, and some entrances carry inscriptions and reliefs of the dead. The inventory identifies the site with Dalisandos, following Ramsay.

Kozak Han and Sertavul Han. Two Karamanid hans on the old Karaman–Mut road, the second at the Sertavul Pass.

What are the best things to do in Karaman?

• Walk between the ruins of Binbirkilise. Combine the basilicas of Madenşehir with the hilltop churches of Değle higher up the mountain.
• Climb to Karaman Castle at the end of the day. The inner citadel looks over the flat roofs of the city to Karadağ.
• Follow the Karamanid monuments on foot. Hatuniye, Aktekke, the Yunus Emre Mosque and the İbrahim Bey Tomb are a morning’s walk.
• See the granaries of Taşkale. Locals still climb the cliff on footholds to reach their stores.
• Walk the Gödet canyon. The provincial culture directorate describes the Gödet “Hidden Paradise” canyon in Güldere village as a stream valley with footpaths and rock-cut church caves, popular with walkers. Nearby, in the Ernek area of the same village, the inventory describes a Byzantine cave town with rock-cut dwellings up to seven or eight storeys high.
• Go up to the yayla. The inventory notes that taking flocks up to the summer pastures is a tradition in the villages of the Taurus, and that Karaman’s yaylas, concentrated in the Ayrancı, Sarıveliler, Başyayla and Ermenek districts, are forested, with good spring water and clean air. It also suggests the Bolkar ranges in the south and the Akçaalan Bağdat, Yellibel and Barçın yaylas in the west for mountain walking.
• Time your visit for a festival. The Turkish Language Festival is held in Karaman in May. The 2002 inventory also lists a cherry festival in Başyayla, a honey festival in Sarıveliler and an apple festival in Karaman; check locally whether they still run.

What are the best places to visit in Karaman?

Binbirkilise is the “Thousand and One Churches”: dozens of Byzantine basilicas, chapels, cisterns and tombs spread over the volcanic massif of Karadağ, made famous by Gertrude Bell and William Ramsay in the early 20th century.

Karaman Castle crowns a prehistoric mound in the city centre, with an inner citadel of nine towers rebuilt by the Ottomans in the 1460s using older inscriptions and carved stones.

Hatuniye Madrasa is the masterpiece of Karamanid architecture, a theological school of 1382 with a marble portal carved like lace.

Yunus Emre Mosque and Tomb holds four cenotaphs said to be those of Yunus Emre, his teacher Taptuk Emre, and Yunus’s son and daughter.

Taşkale granaries are more than 250 storerooms cut into a cliff above the town, still used for grain; the Manazan cave settlement is in the valley nearby.

Also worth your time: the Karaman Museum for the Canhasan finds, the Aktekke Mosque, the Dereköy church, and Ermenek with its cliff castle and the rock tombs of the Göksu valley. Konya, with the Mevlana Museum, is an hour away by train.

Frequently asked questions about Karaman

What do the official records say about Karaman?

With a past reaching back to around 8000 BC, Karaman is one of our provinces that holds both historical and natural beauty. While Karaman is developing and industrialising rapidly, it also has a potential that is waiting to be put to use for tourism.

Karaman’s archaeological potential is also very high, and Canhasan, one of the leading prehistoric excavation sites in our country, is here. Derbe, claimed to be the first Christian church; Binbirkilise, again very important to Christians; Madenşehir, Taşkale, Sarıveliler and Başyayla are only a few of the places worth seeing in the province. Karaman, the home of Yunus Emre and Karamanoğlu Mehmet Bey, also holds an important place in the history of the Turkish language. The language festival held in the province has a tourist function as well as a scholarly one. (Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Karaman Provincial Tourism Inventory, 2002)