The tomb of Karaman Baba stands fifteen kilometres from Sakarya,; what is known concerns the man rather than the building. Karaman Baba's own name was Can Baba, and the kara — black — was given to him by Hacı Bektaş Veli for the black clothes he wore and the black cap on his head; the accounts say he dressed that way to go and stand before Hacı Bektaş Veli.
He is counted among the Horasan Erenleri and the Alp Erenleri, the holy men remembered as having come to Anatolia and, with the believers who gathered around them, performed great deeds. Because he is held to descend from the Prophet he is also called Seyyid Karaman Baba, and he is said to have fallen while on the way to the conquest of İstanbul.
The site is about fifteen kilometres from the centre of Sakarya, on the road between Karaman and Adapazarı, behind the city forest and opposite the Yenikent state hospital. The road is asphalt and passable in any season, ordinary city transport reaches it, and people come as pilgrims.
When to go
- Climate
- Across Sakarya as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from 6.3 °C in January to 23.6 °C in July; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in May, June, July, August, September and October; rainfall is heaviest in December (106 mm) and lightest in August (48 mm). Long-term means for 1951-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
