The Murat Pasha Mosque in Niğde was built on 16 September 1670 and has come through its repairs with much of its original character, still in use. It is a transverse rectangle, about 13.00 by 30.60 metres outside, and the prayer hall is covered by four domes of differing diameters, with a tomb at its northwest corner and a single-balcony minaret at the eastern end of the north front. It is thought that a three-bay porch formerly stood at the middle of that north front.
Fine-dressed yellowish trachyte was used in the walls and the roofing system, basalt in the piers, and marble in the minbar and in one of the doors; the workmanship is clean. Two rows of windows on the facades break up the mass of the walls. The mosque is plainly built overall, and the decoration worth noticing is at the courtyard gate, the mihrab, the minbar and the wooden gallery in the western part of the hall. It is on Paşalar Caddesi, within walking distance in central Niğde.
Getting there
- Access
- In central Niğde, reachable on foot.
When to go
- Climate
- Across Niğde as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from -0.2 °C in January to 22.6 °C in July; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in May, June, July, August and September; rainfall is heaviest in May (48 mm) and lightest in July (6 mm). Long-term means for 1935-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
