The mosque stands in the İslam quarter of the Mazgirt district of Tunceli. It was built for Elti Hatun, sister of the Akkoyunlu ruler Uzun Hasan.
The building is rectangular and made of cut stone. It carries two inscriptions, and there is a further inscription on the door that can no longer be read. A fountain adjoins the north front.
A story is told about its founding. Elti Hatun, having fallen ill, expected that she would die, and asked her brother not to bury her in the ground because she feared snakes. Uzun Hasan listened to her and had the mosque built, and after her death hung her body from the ceiling on a chain. When he went to the mosque the next day he saw a snake on the coffin and understood that the right thing was to bury his sister in the earth. Three graves stand today beneath the chain hanging from the ceiling, said to be those of Elti Hatun, of Uzun Hasan's niece and of his mother.
When to go
- Climate
- Across Tunceli as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from -1.8 °C in January to 27.1 °C in July; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in May, June and September; rainfall is heaviest in December (133 mm) and lightest in August (5 mm). Long-term means for 1960-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
