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