Five medieval mosques added to UNESCO World Heritage List

UNESCO World Heritage Committee registered five mosques dating to the medieval era in Turkey as World Heritage sites during its 45th session, which was held in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia.

These wooden mosques are located in the Anatolian cities of Konya, Eskişehir, Afyonkarahisar, Kastamonu and Ankara.

After the ancient city of Gordion was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO on Sept. 18, Konya’s Beyşehir Eşrefoğlu Mosque, Eskişehir’s Sivrihisar Ulu Mosque, Kastamonu Koşu Village’s Mahmut Bey Mosque, Ankara’s Ahi Şerefeddin (Aslanhane) Mosque and Afyonkarahisar’s Ulu Mosque are now on the UNESCO World Heritage list, too.

“We registered our series of cultural assets on the UNESCO World Heritage List for the first time. After Gordion, the wooden pillar and beam mosques of Anatolia, which date back to the Middle Ages, became a World Heritage Site. We increased the number of cultural assets on the list to 21,” said Turkey’s Culture and Tourism Mehmet Nuri Ersoy.