Guide
Divriği castle stands on the rock overlooking the Çaltı river north of the town. It was built by the Mengujekids and measures about 400 metres from south to north and 200 from east to west, with the outer circuit running roughly a kilometre. Along the walls of both the outer and the inner castle are a number of bastions — square, polygonal and round — and the outer castle opens to the town through two gates on the southwest and west.
Inside the castle is the Kale Mescidi, built in 1180 by Emir İshak, son of Süleyman Şah. Its position on the edge of the cliff and an architecture distinct from other buildings of the same period make it the oldest and the only example of its kind. It is one of the Friday mosques with a minbar built after the Turkish conquest of Anatolia, and its portal is known as the first of the Anatolian portals and as the first example in the development of the art of stone carving. The castle is 80 kilometres from the Kangal-Divriği junction at the 96th kilometre of the Sivas-Malatya road, and can be reached by rail as well.
