Kırşehir: Steppe City of the Ahi Brotherhood

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

What is Kırşehir?

Kırşehir is a province on the open steppe of Central Anatolia, and also the name of its capital. The name is usually translated as “steppe city”, and the landscape fits: wide wheat fields, low bare hills and big skies, with the Kızılırmak curving along the north and west of the province and the edge of Cappadocia beginning to the southeast.

The province’s 2002 tourism inventory introduces it as a place that has been the stage of various civilisations for thousands of years, drawing attention not only with its historic monuments and underground cities, but also with its rich thermal springs and natural beauty such as Seyfe Lake, the “bird paradise”.

For Turks, Kırşehir has two strong associations. The first is Ahilik, the brotherhood of craftsmen and traders founded here in the 13th century by Ahi Evran, whose tomb is still in the city. The second is music: Kırşehir is the home of the bozlak, the long, high-pitched lament of the steppe, and of Neşet Ertaş (1938–2012), the most loved folk musician of modern Türkiye.

For visitors it works as a quiet stop between Ankara and Cappadocia, with a compact old centre of Seljuk monuments, a world-class small museum at Kaman, and a salt lake full of birds.

Places to visit in Kırşehir

Cacabey Madrasa

Cacabey Madrasa in Kırşehir: the 1272 Seljuk school of astronomy with its…

Ahi Evran Mosque and Tomb

Ahi Evran Mosque and Tomb in Kırşehir: the grave of the founder…

Kaman-Kalehöyük

Kaman-Kalehöyük in Kırşehir: the mound excavated by a Japanese team since 1986,…

Seyfe Lake

Seyfe Lake in Kırşehir: a shallow salt lake and Ramsar wetland since…

How do you get to Kırşehir?

By air: Kırşehir has no airport. The nearest is Nevşehir Kapadokya Airport to the southeast, with domestic flights mainly from Istanbul. Istanbul Airport and Sabiha Gökçen are the usual connecting points for overseas visitors. Ankara Esenboğa Airport has many more flights and is a straightforward drive away.

By road: Kırşehir sits on the main roads between Ankara, Nevşehir and Kayseri, and intercity buses run frequently from Ankara’s AŞTİ bus station as well as from Istanbul, Konya and Kayseri. Kaman, home of Kaman-Kalehöyük, lies on the Ankara side of the province, directly on the main road.

By rail: The city is not on a passenger rail line. The Ankara–Sivas high-speed line has stations at Kırıkkale and at Yerköy in neighbouring Yozgat province, from which you continue by road.

Getting around: The city-centre monuments (the Cacabey Madrasa, the Ahi Evran complex and the Melik Gazi tomb) can be walked. Kaman-Kalehöyük, Seyfe Lake, the Kesikköprü caravanserai and the underground cities need a car.

Where should you stay in Kırşehir?

Stay in Kırşehir city itself: it has a range of mid-sized hotels, including thermal hotels using the local hot springs, and the main monuments are within walking distance of the centre. Kaman has a small number of places to stay but most visitors see it as a stop on the road. Many travellers combine Kırşehir with Cappadocia and stay there instead.

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What type of climate does Kırşehir have?

Kırşehir has a dry continental climate: hot, dry summers and cold, snowy winters. Rain is scarce, around 385 mm a year, and falls mostly in winter and spring; late summer is almost completely dry. The city gets about 2,700 hours of sunshine a year. The record high is 40.5°C (August 2019) and the record low −28.0°C (January 1942), which gives an idea of the range on the open steppe.

When is the best time to visit Kırşehir?

May, June, September and early October are the most comfortable months. Spring is the best season at Seyfe Lake, when the water is highest and migrating and breeding birds are present. Early October is the time of the Kaman walnut festival, and the 2002 inventory lists the Ahilik Culture Week and Tradesmen’s Festival in the second week of October; check current dates, as these change. Summer days are hot but evenings are cool; winter is cold, grey and often snowy.

What is the history of Kırşehir?

The 2002 inventory notes that research in and around Kırşehir shows the province’s history reaching back to the Early Bronze Age (3000–2000 BC). Hittites, Phrygians, Persians, Macedonians, Romans, Byzantines, Seljuks and Ottomans later ruled the region.

The deepest record of that sequence is at Kaman-Kalehöyük, where Japanese archaeologists have excavated since 1986 and found layers running from the Early Bronze Age through the Assyrian trading-colony period, the Hittite kingdom and empire, the Phrygians and later Iron Age peoples, to Byzantine and Ottoman times. Other mounds such as Çağırkan Kale Höyük near Kaman, inhabited according to the inventory from 3000 BC to the Islamic period, and the central Kalehöyük in the city itself, show the same long occupation.

In the Roman and Byzantine periods the region was part of Cappadocia; Justinian raised the city to the status of a metropolis of Cappadocia Tertia under the name Justinianopolis. The underground cities at Mucur and Dulkadirli İnli Murat, which the inventory dates to the 3rd–5th centuries AD, belong to this world.

The Seljuks took the city in the 1070s and gave it its present name. The 13th century was Kırşehir’s high point. Under the Seljuk emir Nureddin Caca, the city gained the Kesikköprü caravanserai (1248) and the Cacabey Madrasa (1272), a school of astronomy and mathematics. In the same century, the inventory says, Ahilik was founded in Kırşehir: a guild organisation of tradesmen, based on honesty, mutual help and respect, that played a great role in Anatolia’s commercial and economic life for centuries. Its founder Ahi Evran is buried here, and Sufi poets such as Aşık Paşa (died 1332) and Süleyman Türkmani made the city a centre of Turkish-language literature.

Under the Ottomans Kırşehir was a sanjak of the Ankara province. In 1924 it became the capital of the new Kırşehir Province. Atatürk visited in 1921, during the War of Independence, and again in 1931; the anniversaries of his arrival in Mucur, Kırşehir and Kaman on 23–25 December are still marked.

What is Kırşehir famous for?

Ahilik. The Ahi brotherhood joined craft training, trade ethics and mutual aid. The provincial culture and tourism directorate explains that ahi means generous, hospitable, brotherly and brave, and quotes Ahi Evran’s principle: keep your hand, your table and your door open, and keep your tongue, your eyes and your waist bound. The Ahi Evran Mosque and Tomb is the spiritual centre of this tradition.

Seljuk astronomy. The Cacabey Madrasa, built in 1272, taught mathematics, science and astronomy and has an observation well in its courtyard and a tower beside it.

Folk music. Kırşehir is the heartland of the bozlak and of the Abdal musicians of the steppe. Neşet Ertaş, born in a village of the province in 1938 and buried in Kırşehir in 2012, made this style known across Türkiye. The 2002 inventory lists a Folk Poets’ Festival in August and a Yunus Emre Commemoration Day in May.

Japanese archaeology. The excavation and museum at Kaman-Kalehöyük are run with the Japanese Institute of Anatolian Archaeology, and the museum garden is laid out in Japanese style.

What are the historical places of Kırşehir?

In the city

Cacabey Madrasa. The 1272 Seljuk madrasa and observatory, now used as a mosque. See our Cacabey Madrasa guide.

Ahi Evran Mosque and Tomb. The mosque and tomb of the founder of the Ahi brotherhood; the inventory notes that the tomb is reached by a staircase from inside the mosque. See Ahi Evran Mosque and Tomb.

Melik Gazi Kümbeti. In the southeast of the city centre, this tomb is thought to have been built in the 13th century. It is octagonal and shaped like a tent. The inventory names the Kalender Baba and Fatma Hatun tombs as other kümbets worth seeing.

Lala (Lale) Mosque. Right next to the Melik Gazi tomb. The inventory notes that its architecture suggests it was built in the 13th century as a caravanserai or a mint.

Aşık Paşa Tomb. The tomb of the 14th-century Sufi poet Aşık Paşa, who died in 1332. The inventory lists it with the tombs of Cacabey, Süleyman Türkmani and Muhterem Hatun among the tombs worth seeing.

Kırşehir Museum. Inside the city’s culture centre, with about 10,000 archaeological and ethnographic objects: local pottery, Roman and Byzantine sculpture and grave stelae, Ahi documents and a reconstructed Kırşehir house. The provincial directorate reports that a new archaeology museum is being built at Ağbayır, where many objects now in storage will go on show.

Around the province

Kesikköprü Caravanserai (Cacabey Han). The inventory describes the caravanserai in Kesikköprü village, 23 km south of Kırşehir, and the bridge beside it as built in 1248 by Nurettin Caca, the Anatolian Seljuk emir of Kırşehir. Its crown portal, made of stone in two colours, stands out for its stonework. The bridge carries the old road across the Kızılırmak.

Mucur Underground City. In the centre of Mucur town. According to the inventory it was founded in the 3rd and 4th centuries AD; 7–8 m below ground, it has 42 rooms, corridors, stables, places of worship, secret passages and ventilation shafts.

Dulkadirli İnli Murat Underground City. In Dulkadirli İnli Murat village, 58 km from the city; thought to date from the 4th–5th centuries AD, with three main spaces and ten rooms opening off them.

Kaman-Kalehöyük. The Bronze and Iron Age mound east of Kaman, with its museum and Japanese garden. See Kaman-Kalehöyük.

Castles and mounds. Kuş Kalesi near Kaman, thought to have been built in the Hittite period and used until the end of Byzantine rule; Keçi Kalesi northeast of Kızılca village, a Byzantine castle whose walls still stand 2–3 m high and one of the largest in the province; and Hashöyük, 35 km from the city, where Hittite remains have been found.

Derefakılı churches. In Derefakılı village in Akçakent district. The inventory describes them as among the earliest churches of Christianity.

What are the best things to do in Kırşehir?

• Walk the Seljuk centre. Cacabey Madrasa, the Ahi Evran complex, the Melik Gazi tomb and Lala Mosque are within a short walk of each other.
• Spend half a day at Kaman. The Kaman-Kalehöyük museum and its Japanese garden, then the mound itself.
• Watch birds at Seyfe Lake. Spring and early summer are best; bring binoculars.
• Soak in a thermal bath. The inventory lists the Terme and Karakurt hot springs for thermal tourism, and Kırşehir’s thermal hotels use the local springs.
• Go underground at Mucur. A smaller, quieter version of the underground cities of Cappadocia.
• Listen to the bozlak. Kırşehir’s folk music is still played at weddings, festivals and in the city’s music halls; the August Folk Poets’ Festival is the obvious time.
• Taste Kaman walnuts. The town holds a walnut festival in the first week of October, according to the inventory.

What are the best places to visit in Kırşehir?

Cacabey Madrasa is a Seljuk school of astronomy of 1272, with an observation well, a 21-metre brick tower and a two-coloured portal.

Ahi Evran Mosque and Tomb holds the tomb of Ahi Evran, founder of the Ahi guilds, in a complex that grew from a 14th-century lodge.

Kaman-Kalehöyük is a Bronze Age mound excavated by a Japanese team since 1986, with an award-winning museum opened in 2010 and a Japanese garden.

Seyfe Lake is a shallow salt lake on the steppe in Mucur district, a Ramsar wetland since 1994 and the province’s “bird paradise”.

Also worth your time: the Kesikköprü caravanserai and bridge, the Mucur underground city and the Melik Gazi tomb. Kırşehir is an easy add-on to Cappadocia, and the Derinkuyu and Kaymaklı underground cities are the larger cousins of Mucur’s.

Frequently asked questions about Kırşehir

What do the official records say about Kırşehir?

The province of Kırşehir, which has been the stage of various civilisations for thousands of years, attracts attention not only with its various historic monuments and underground cities, but also with its rich thermal springs and natural beauties such as Seyfe Lake (the Bird Paradise).

Ahilik, which played a great role in the commercial and economic life of Anatolia for centuries, was founded in Kırşehir in the 13th century. The foundation of Ahilik, a tradesmen’s organisation, rests on honesty, mutual help and respect. (Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Kırşehir Provincial Tourism Inventory, 2002)