The tomb of Bektaş Efendi stands in the Bala quarter of Hacıbektaş, Nevşehir, in a walled garden, and it is open to visitors. It is a registered monument belonging to the General Directorate of Foundations, and its inscription shows it to be an Ottoman work of 1603. The building is monumental in bearing: cut stone outside, with the interior walls plastered and painted white.
It is made up of two parts, a square entrance block and the tomb chamber holding the cenotaph. The portal is round-arched and decorated with circular motifs, with the inscription set beneath the arch. The entrance block is covered inside by a vault whose transitions are made with arches, and outside by a hipped roof; each of its faces carries arches, with a rectangular iwan on the north and two fairly large niches on the south. On the arch of the door leading through to the tomb chamber is a rectangular panel of calligraphic decoration. The chamber itself is entered through a round-arched door and covered by a dome on squinches inside and a conical cap outside. In its north, south and west walls are small windows set in round-arched niches, decorated with Quranic verses, and the dome and walls carry painted decoration of plant motifs, with star motifs in the squinches.
When to go
- Climate
- Across Nevşehir as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from -0.1 °C in January to 21.4 °C in July; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in June, July, August and September; rainfall is heaviest in May (58 mm) and lightest in August (8 mm). Long-term means for 1959-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
