Guide

The bedesten north of the great mosque in Mardin, known locally as the Kaysariya or simply the Bedesten, is an Artuqid building that has been repaired continuously since. It is in two main parts: a row of shops on the side facing south, and inside, spaces resembling those outer shops running right around the building.

The central space those inner shops leave is divided in three by two rows of piers and covered with cross vaults; it is entered by two doors from the south and one each from the east and west. Different inscriptions record it as belonging to the endowment of the great mosque and to the endowment of the Kasım Padişah medrese. It is on the street known as 2. Cadde, just above the great mosque.