The Walls and Gates of Konya: The Armour of a Capital

Today there is no large visible stretch of wall in Konya apart from Alâeddin Hill; yet eight centuries ago this was a medieval capital ringed by a double line of walls, protected by ditches, its towers and gates adorned with reliefs of lions, angels, dragons, eagles and sphinxes. Of the city's twelve monumental gates, four were built by Sultan Alâeddin Keykubat I from the state treasury and the remaining eight paid for out of the pockets of 140 emirs. In this article we will follow the trail of Konya's invisible armour, from the Inner Castle to the Outer Castle, from the story of the twelve gates to the foundations now emerging from beneath the soil at the Larende Gate.

Why Do the Walls of Konya Matter So Much?

From 1097 to 1307 Konya was the capital of the Anatolian Seljuk State. Standing at the crossing of the north-south and east-west caravan routes made the city a centre of trade, industry and culture; the double line of walls built to protect that wealth, and the ditch surrounding it, count among the most impressive city defences in Anatolia. A visitor coming to Konya today, unless told, may struggle to notice that most of the outer walls, once more than 4,640 metres long, are no longer there. Behind that silence lies a story of destruction spread over centuries, of forgetting, and finally of rediscovery.

The Inner Castle: The Seat of Government on Alâeddin Hill

Konya Castle consists of two parts: the Inner Castle and the Outer Castle. The inner castle stands on the mound known as Alâeddin Hill in the middle of the city; 450 metres from north to south and 330 from east to west, it covers an oval area of roughly 94,200 square metres. Excavations by R. O. Arık in 1941 showed that the hill's history reaches back to 2000 BC: layers from the Phrygian, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine and Seljuk periods were identified. A settlement since Phrygian times, the hill became under the Seljuks the site of the palace, the great mosque (the Alâeddin Mosque) and the seat of government.

Two lines of wall remains, probably from different periods, have been identified around the inner castle. The outer wall is about 3 metres thick, with corner towers laid out as round and square bastions measuring 4×7 and 4×3 metres. There were ditches both inside and outside the hill, crossed by movable bridges.

"The inner castle was ringed by a double line of walls, with two separate ditches inside and outside. Crossing was by movable bridges." — Konyapedia

Of the four gates the inner castle must have had, one for each direction, only two are known today: on the northern side, beside the Karatay Madrasa, the Sultan Gate (Bâb'üs-Sultan) — it bore reliefs of lions and a double-headed eagle and is named in the Karatay Madrasa's endowment deed of 1253 — and on the eastern side the Akıncı Gate, built in 1210 by Cemâleddîn İshak, with a lion sculpture before it. Within the inner castle stood a palace of the Seljuk sultans and its outbuildings (kitchens, a bath, stores of provisions and munitions, cisterns, an armoury); before the palace there was probably a square, and buildings such as the Friday (Alâeddin / Inner Castle) Mosque, a mint between the Alâeddin (Kılıçarslan) Pavilion and the mosque, the Hacı İsa bin Mahmut Mosque and the Medrese-i Sultaniye; on the southern side of the hill lay a Christian quarter.

The Outer Castle: By Order of Alâeddin Keykubat in 1221

The outer castle was built in 1221, in the reign of Sultan Alâeddin Keykubat I. The sultan needed a solid outer castle against enemy attack — the Mongol threat above all — against flooding, and against the internal threat posed by powerful emirs who had amassed excessive wealth in the city. Ibn Bibi describes the process in detail in his Selçukname: the sultan went round the city with the leading men of the state, architects and master draughtsmen, had the positions of the towers, walls and gates drawn out himself, examined the drawings closely and made corrections in places. He then ordered that the cost of four castle gates, several towers and stretches of wall be met from the state treasury and the rest shared out among the great emirs.

"It would be a mistake to deprive of the ornament of a fortress a city to which people come from every part of the world with a thousand hopes in search of ease and peace, leaving their goods and property behind and choosing its threshold as a home far from the troubles of the day." — Ibn Bibi, Selçukname

During construction, reliefs and sculptures were carved on rocks resembling the raw sun; verses of the Qur'an, hadiths and couplets from the Shahnameh were written in gold leaf on soft stone and marble. Everyone who worked on it was rewarded by having his name written in gold letters on a stone. The figures differ slightly between sources: the length is 4,640 metres according to Konyapedia and 5–6 kilometres according to others; the number of towers is 140 according to the Anonymous Selçukname (built by 140 emirs) and 108 according to Charles Texier, one every 30 metres; the wall was 3 metres thick and about 10 metres high; outside it ran a ditch 10 to 15 metres wide, in which floodwater from the mountains to the northwest gathered before flowing on to the Aslım Stream, with crossings by wooden drawbridges. By the generally accepted count, four of the twelve gates were built by Sultan Alâeddin Keykubat and eight by the emirs.

Figural Ornament

The outer walls and gates are counted among the buildings with the richest figural ornament of their period; spolia (inscriptions, statues, stelae and sarcophagi of the ancient and Byzantine periods) stood alongside original Seljuk reliefs.

• Lion: present in the twelve-animal Turkish calendar and in legal symbolism, a token of strength and power believed to be a talisman protecting the city from evil.
• Double-headed eagle: a figure held sacred in the religious beliefs of the Turks of Central Asia and regarded as a protective spirit; depicted with one head or two.
• Winged angel: placed in the gate niches as a symbol of goodness.
• Dragon: standing for happiness, plenty, abundance and long life, set on the castle gate to instil health in the city and to protect it from evil spirits and enemies.
• Fish: in Old Turkic this figure meant "city, castle and palace", and it stood for the castle and for the city of Konya — on the pediment of the Larende Gate's portal there was a fish relief on either side and the word "es-sultân" above.
• Other figures: sphinxes, a struggle between a rhinoceros and an elephant, human-headed birds (sirens) and cross-legged seated human figures were also among the ornament.

Today some of these pieces are displayed at the İnce Minareli Madrasa, some at the Karatay Madrasa Museum of Tile Works and at the Konya Museum of Stone and Wooden Works.

Twelve Monumental Gates: Where a City Breathed

The twelve gates in the outer walls were the city's points of connection with the outside world; each carried both a defensive and an aesthetic function.

Southern Gates

• Larende Gate: the most famous of the gates opening southwards — at the start of the Karaman road today, directly opposite the Sahip Ata Mosque, taking its name from Larende, as Karaman was then called, and thought to be one of the four gates built from the treasury of Sultan Alâeddin Keykubat I. Its foundation, 11 metres wide, was brought to light in the excavations of 2023–2025; on the pediment of the portal were the word "es-sultân", a date and fish figures, with winged angel and dragon reliefs on the flanking columns. It was one of the two gates burnt by the Turkmens in the Cimri Revolt of 1277, and its inscription is today at the Karatay Madrasa Museum of Tile Works.
• Horse Market (Bazaar) Gate: near the Kapu Mosque, opening onto the Horse Market between the Telli Gate and the Timber Market; it is thought to be one of Alâeddin Keykubat's four treasury gates, with reliefs of diademed, winged angels on either side of the iwan-shaped portal niche.
• Telli Gate: on the south of the castle, the smallest gate, opening onto the Üçler Cemetery.
• Tanners' Gate: also known as the Damascus Gate, opposite the road running from the Horse Market to the powder works; leather workshops stood nearby.

Eastern Gates

• Aksaray Gate: the main gate opening onto Konya's eastern region — the Babı Aksaray quarter takes its name from it today, and there were lion sculptures on its pediment.
• New (Iron) Gate: near the old Larende Avenue, also known as the Stone Gate and Bab-ı Cedit, a gate opened relatively late.

Northern Gates

• Ertaş (İstanbul / Çaşnigir) Gate: where the Numune Hospital stands today, built by Çaşnigir, one of Sultan Alâeddin's emirs, opening onto the Afyon–İstanbul trade road.
• Halkabeguş Gate (Meydan Gate): taking its name from the Halkabeguş Mosque in the Kalenderhane quarter, thought to be one of Alâeddin Keykubat's four treasury gates; it was the start of the route reaching the port of Sinop by way of Ankara, Çankırı and Kastamonu.
• Ayas Gate: on the northeast of the castle, most likely built by Ayaz, one of Alâeddin Keykubat's emirs and trustees.

Western Gates

• Sille Gate: opening northwest towards the Sille road between the Zindankale and the Tacülvezir Tomb; figures of eared and winged dragons in blue-grey marble, along with human figures, are recorded as having stood on it.
• Antalya (Meram) Gate: also called the Ahmedek Gate, on the Meram road where the road continuing from the western gate of the inner castle cut the outer wall; because the Ottomans closed it, it was also known as the "Built-Up Gate" or "Old Gate".
• Fountain Gate: on the road to the Sadreddin Konevi Mosque, thought to be one of Alâeddin Keykubat's four treasury gates; it took its name from the Sahip Ata Fountain built opposite it — it linked Konya to the port of Antalya by way of Beyşehir, Şarkikaraağaç, Isparta and Burdur.

The Gates in the Ottoman Period

Giving information about the walls of Konya in his Seyahatname, Evliya Çelebi relates that all but four of the twelve gates were closed in the Ottoman period. These four open gates are thought to have been the Larende, Horse Market, Aksaray and Fountain gates — the ones most necessary to the city's daily life.

The Walls' Fortunes: Building, Destruction, Repair, Demolition

The walls of Konya have weathered a great deal since they were built:

• 1255 — the Mongol ruler Baiju Noyan had part of the outer walls pulled down.
• 1276 — Karamanoğlu Mehmet Bey, taking Konya, had seven of the outer castle towers demolished and rebuilt.
• 1277 (the Cimri Revolt) — the Turkmens set fire to two of the gates (Larende and the Horse Market).
• The Ottoman–Karamanid struggle — the city walls were largely ruined.
• The reign of Mehmed the Conqueror — extensive repairs were made to the walls.
• 1835 — Marshal von Moltke, visiting Konya, described what he saw: "a high, long wall with hundreds of towers encircles an empty area containing only a few remains."
• 1896 — the inner castle walls were largely demolished; İ. H. Konyalı wrote that he was born in a house a few hundred metres from the Seljuk palace, that he knew the inner castle's walls of regular cut stone and the ditch running on towards the İnce Minare, and that in time these were pulled down.
• After 1898 — during Avlonyalı Ferit Pasha's governorship of Konya the wall stones were largely used as building material; according to Konyapedia there are documents in the Ottoman Archives of the Prime Ministry concerning the use of stone from the inner castle and the Sultan Alâeddin Palace in the Alâeddin Mosque.

"Until thirty years ago the Larende Gate was the only work left of the walls of Konya; and it was in a very poor state. The gate itself was not there; but on looking closely the foundations struck the eye. On the left one could make out the remains of an old tower, its crenellations stripped away and heaped up." — C. Huart, 1891

The Walls of Konya Through Travellers' Eyes

From their construction to the end of the 19th century, the walls of Konya drew the interest of many travellers; their drawings and descriptions are the most important visual records we have.

"A square tower was built every thirty metres along the walls, each bearing the name of the vizier or emir who had it built. There was also a deep ditch. On the walls there were bridges level with the gates for crossing." — Charles Texier

What Is Left of the Walls of Konya Today?

Today only a few remains survive of the outer castle walls, and very few traces of the inner castle. The surviving stretches can be seen behind the shops north of Sahip Ata Avenue, south of the Kapu Mosque, on İstanbul Avenue (found during the Paşapark construction), on the part of Hastane Avenue near Nalçacı Avenue, on Sultan Cem Avenue (today within the grounds of Selçuk University) and in the Zindankale remains (around the Tekke and Dervish Cemetery).

The Darülmülk Project and the Larende Gate Excavations (2023–2025)

Under the "Darülmülk Project" carried out by the Konya Metropolitan Municipality, and with the permission of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, archaeological excavations in the area between the Sahip Ata Complex and the Sırçalı Madrasa, around the old Larende Avenue, have made a considerable impact. So far the excavations have brought to light:

• Roughly 120 metres of the outer wall.
• The entire foundation of the Larende Gate, 11 metres wide.
• That the walls were 3 metres thick and built in the box-wall technique with a stone and rubble fill.
• Remains of the ditch and the bridge piers.

The excavation team of the Konya Museum Directorate announced that the Larende Gate was one of Konya's twelve gates and the most magnificent of the four monumental gates built from the state budget, and that this structure — known for centuries only from travellers' drawings — had been brought to light in concrete form for the first time. Mayor Uğur İbrahim Altay, noting that restoration, expropriation and reconstruction works were being carried out simultaneously, said:

"The Sahip Ata Madrasa, the Larende Gate and the Sırçalı Madrasa will enter Konya's history as a single axis." — Uğur İbrahim Altay, Mayor of the Konya Metropolitan Municipality

Frequently Asked Questions About the Walls of Konya

How many gates did Konya have?

It is generally accepted that the outer castle had twelve gates; four were built by Sultan Alâeddin Keykubat I from the state budget and eight through the sponsorship of 140 emirs.

Why were the walls demolished?

Over the centuries they were largely destroyed through Mongol attacks, the conflicts of the Karamanid period, the Ottoman–Karamanid wars and finally their dismantling for building material in the 19th century; the inner castle walls were largely demolished in 1896.

Can I see the walls today?

Under the Darülmülk Project the Larende Gate and 120 metres of wall around it have been brought to light; small remains can also be seen north of Sahip Ata Avenue, on Hastane Avenue and on Sultan Cem Avenue.

Where can I see the ornament?

The castle inscription with fish, the inscription with eagles, and the winged angel, dragon and lion reliefs are displayed at the İnce Minareli Madrasa, at the Karatay Madrasa Museum of Tile Works and at the Konya Museum of Stone and Wooden Works.

The Guide's Note

If your path takes you to Konya, first visit the Mevlana Museum and then walk along Larende Avenue towards the Sahip Ata Complex; the excavation area and information panels you will see on the way are the best starting point for understanding this magnificent line of defence of the Seljuk capital. Be sure to make time for the inner castle excavations continuing at the foot of Alâeddin Hill, for the figural reliefs at the İnce Minareli Madrasa and the Karatay Madrasa Museum of Tile Works, and for the gate inscriptions at the Konya Museum of Stone and Wooden Works; the Sırçalı Madrasa too stands right beside the wall remains, as part of the Darülmülk axis. Walking through Konya today it is not hard to imagine that double line of wall you cannot see, and the lion, the angel and the dragon upon it — they are still there, beneath the soil.