The reason to come to this village mosque is inside it: the minbar and the ceiling decoration, which the Ministry of Culture and Tourism says matter more than its fronts. It is in the village of Ortacalar in the Arhavi district of Artvin and, according to its inscription, was built in 1757.
Its parts have dates of their own. The wooden ceiling and the wooden minbar were made in 1908; the minaret was added in 1955; and the porch for latecomers was brought to its present form in 1964. The building stands on ground sloping down from north to south, with the two-storey porch on the north and the minaret at the north-west corner, the whole covered outside by a hipped roof. The main space has a flat wooden ceiling with a richly worked octagonal boss at its centre. The mosque has had partial repairs and is still open and in use for worship.
When to go
- Climate
- Across Artvin as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from 2.8 °C in January to 21.3 °C in August; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in May, June, July, August and September; rainfall is heaviest in December (87 mm) and lightest in August (29 mm). Long-term means for 1949-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
