Ahi Elvan Mosque stands in the Koyunpazarı quarter, on the slope below Ankara Castle, and went up over a long building campaign that ran from 1331 to 1389.
It was paid for by Ahi Elvan Mehmet Bey. The Ahis were a semi-religious brotherhood of craftsmen, and the mosque belongs to their quarter of the old town rather than to a sultan's foundation.
The plan is a plain rectangle. What repays a visit is inside rather than outside: the interior is carried in wood, and the carving is the Seljuk tradition of woodwork.
When to go
- Climate
- Across Ankara as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from 0.4 °C in January to 23.6 °C in August; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in May, June, July, August and September; rainfall is heaviest in May (52 mm) and lightest in August (13 mm). Long-term means for 1927-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
