Beyşehir

Beyşehir is a municipality and district of Konya Province, Turkey. Its area is 2,054 km2, and its population is 77,690 (2022). The town is located on the southeastern shore of Lake Beyşehir and is marked to the west and the southwest by the steep lines and forests of the Taurus Mountains, while a fertile plain, an extension of the lake area, extends in the southeastern direction.
History
The Hittite monument situated in Beyşehir's depending locality of Eflatunpınar, at a short distance to the northeast from the town, proves that the Hittite Empire had reached as far as the region, marking in fact, in the light of present knowledge, the limits of their extension to the southwest. Evidence points out that an earlier settlement, perhaps dating back to the Neolithic Age, was also located in Eflatunpınar. Another important early settlement was located in Erbaba Höyük, situated to the southwest of Beyşehir, and which was explored by the Canadian archaeologists Jacques and Louise Alpes Bordaz in the 1970s, leading to finds from three neolithic building layers.
The Beyşehir region corresponds to classical antiquity's Pisidia. At the location of the town itself there was in all likelihood a Greek city, which in one view was probably named Karallia, which was one of the two urban centers that surrounded the lake at the time, and in Roman times was known as Claudiocaesarea (Klaudiokaisareia), and Mistheia in Byzantine times. Another theory is that Beyşehir's site corresponds to that of Casae (Κἀσαι), the seat of a Christian diocese of the Roman province of Pamphylia, which under Roman rule included large parts of Pisidia.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=LnMPAAAAYAAJ&dq=Pamphylia+Pisidia&pg=PA1067 Charles Anthon, A Classical Dictionary (Harper and Bros. 1845), p. 1067]</ref> The names of some of its bishops are given in documents concerning church councils held from 381 to 879.Pius Bonifacius Gams, Series episcoporum Ecclesiae Catholicae, Leipzig 1931, p. 450 No longer a residential bishopric, Casae in Pamphylia is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see.
The state of desolation into which the ancient city, whatever it was called, had fallen by the first decades of the 13th century is suggested by the name "Viranşehir" that the Seljuk Turks had given to the town, meaning "the desolate city"''. The Seljuk Sultans of Rum based in Konya nevertheless built their summer residence nearby, in an agglomeration situated on the southwestern lake shore at a distance of from Beyşehir city, and which came to be known as Kubadabad Palace. While the most precious finds of Kubadabad site date from the reign of Alaeddin Keykubad (1220–1237), it was a seasonal settlement area chosen by and for the sultans already in the late 12th century.
After the fall of the Seljuks, Viranşehir was renamed for a time as Süleymanşehir in honor of one of the beys of the region's ruling dynasty, the Eshrefids, who made the town into his capital. Since the beys of Eshrefids resided here, the present name of Beyşehir was gradually adopted for the town. The Great Mosque of Beyşehir built by the dynasty between 1296–1299, also called Eşrefoğlu Mosque, is considered one of the masterpieces of the intermediate period of Anatolian beyliks between the Seljuk and Ottoman architecture styles.
Composition
There are 67 neighbourhoods in Beyşehir District:
Adaköy
Ağılönü
Akburun
Avdancık
Avşar
Bademli
Bahçelievler
Başgöze
Bayat
Bayavşar
Bayındır
Bektemir
Beytepe
Çetmi
Çiçekler
Çiftlikköy
Çivril
Çukurağıl
Dalyan
Damlapınar
Doğanbey
Doğancık
Dumanlı
Eğirler
Eğlikler
Emen
Esence
Esentepe
Evsat
Fasıllar
Göçü
Gökçekuyu
Gökçimen
Gölkaşı
Gölyaka
Gönen
Gündoğdu
Hacıakif
Hacıarmağan
Hamidiye
Huğlu
Hüseyinler
İçerişehir
İsaköy
Karaali
Karabayat
Karadiken
Karahisar
Kayabaşı
Küçükafşar
Kurucaova
Kuşluca
Mesutlar
Müftü
Sadıkhacı
Şamlar
Sarıköy
Sevindik
Üçpınar
Üstünler
Üzümlü
Yazyurdu
Yeni
Yenidoğan
Yeşildağ
Yukarıesence
Yunuslar
Notable people
Suleiman Sirr Koydemir (Beshtoev) — is a well-known political and public figure in Turkey. Graduated from the Faculty of Law of the University of Konya. He served as Mayor of Beysehir. He was awarded the highest award of Turkey "Istiklal Medallion" (Medal of Freedom). Ingush by nationality.
Makki Sharif Bashtav — The largest Turkish medieval historian and Turkologist, Byzantine scholar and specialist in Hungarian studies, professor. Ingush by nationality.
See also
Eşrefoğlu Mosque, 13th-century mosque
Lake Beyşehir, Turkey's third biggest lake, and the biggest freshwater lake.
Kubadabad Palace
Eflatunpınar, a spring with a monument by Hittites inside the nearby Lake Beyşehir National Park.
Taşköprü, a historic regulator dam and pedestrian bridge
References
External links
District governor's official website
District municipality's official website
Beyşehir Göl Gazetesi - Local Newspaper
Beyşehir Pictures and some information
Beyşehir Pictures, very many of the wonderful mosque
Populated places in Konya Province
Pamphylia
Ancient Greek archaeological sites in Turkey
Roman sites in Turkey
Catholic titular sees in Asia
Districts of Konya Province
Metropolitan district municipalities in Turkey