The Çardak caravanserai was built, according to the seven-line inscription on it, in the reign of Alaeddin Keykubad by Esededdin Ayaz bin Abdullah el-Sahabi, one of his emirs and formerly his freed slave. It was completed in the month of Ramadan in 1230, and the inscription describes it as a ribat.
It runs east to west and amounts to a simplified version of the sultan's hans, with a wide square courtyard and a hall of six sections in five aisles. The covered space is rectangular on the east-west axis, and the five aisles are formed by four rows of five piers each set in depth. In the period when the district was attached to Dinar the building was known as Hanabat, and during the War of Independence it was used as a grain store. Çardak is 55 kilometres from Denizli on the Ankara road, with minibuses from the bus station; the caravanserai is in the western part of the town, within the built-up area.
Getting there
- Access
- Fifty-five kilometres along the Denizli–Ankara road to the centre of Çardak; the caravanserai stands among the houses on the west side. Minibuses run to Çardak from the Denizli coach station.
When to go
- Climate
- Across Denizli as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from 6 °C in January to 27.5 °C in July; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in May, June, September and October; rainfall is heaviest in January (90 mm) and lightest in August (11 mm). Long-term means for 1957-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
