In the back of the museum and stretching for hundreds of meters there is a huge graveyard, with another türbe or tomb, seemingly at its end, but in reality at the other side of a gully. I took lots of pictures there, but am unable to state anything about what's written on the, often partly toppled, stones. Some of them are taller then I am, making them some two meters or more.

Here you can see that türbe, I am almost there. In its back there turns out to be another türbe that seems to be half finished, or maybe never was intended to have an upper floor. The finished / large one is the Hasan Padişah Kümbeti. It was made in 1274. It was built by Aka Bin Mahmut.

Here you see the two of them together.

Many Seljuk (and later Seljuk-style) mausolea are a stone evocation of the pre-islamic funeral hills of the nomads of Central Asia. During their lives, prominent clan members had their funeral hill (‘kurgan’) prepared; when death came, a circular tent was erected on top of the kurgan, and the deceased’s body was laid out, in order to be greeted a last time by the clan members. After this greeting period, the body was placed in the burial chamber inside the kurgan.
A ‘tent-style’ Seljuk Türbe has two parts: a circular or polygonal room with a pyramidal or cone roof, where a cenotaph sarcophagus can be visited and honoured; this is the part referring to the funeral tent. Beneath this ornamented construction the real burial chamber (‘cenazelik’ or ‘mumyalık’) is to be found, where the deceased’s remains were buried; this is the part referring to the burial hill.

Correspondent: J.M.Criel, Antwerpen.