Payas is a seaside town on the Mediterranean Sea. In the 1567–68 term, Ottoman government Sublime Porte built a shipyard in Payas in preparation for the Cyprus campaign. After the conquest of Cyprus in 1571, the Grand vizier Sokollu Mehmet Pasha built the caravansarai financing it privately. The architect of the caravanserai was Mimar Sinan. It is not known if Sinan actually supervised the construction. According to the inscription of the caravanserai, it was completed in 1574.