On Şeyh Ethem Çelebi Sokak in the centre of Zile, this square, flat-roofed mosque, also known as Bayezid Camii, shows 19th-century Ottoman features in its architecture and its mihrab decoration. It is entered by a door on the north side; narrow slit windows on the east, west and south light the prayer hall, and a wooden women's gallery runs along its north end. The plaster mihrab is thick with floral ornament, while the wooden minbar is plain. A cylindrical minaret with a single balcony stands at the north-west corner.
To the north-east of the mosque is the tomb of Şeyh Ethem, a square chamber under a dome on pendentives, wrapped on the west and north by a timber-roofed portico. Inside stand six cenotaphs. The dome, the pendentives and the walls are covered in painted decoration, including a depiction of the Kabe and landscape scenes, and the names of the four caliphs are written inside sunburst medallions on the pendentives.
When to go
- Climate
- Across Tokat as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from 2 °C in January to 22.5 °C in August; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in May, June, July, August and September; rainfall is heaviest in May (59 mm) and lightest in August (9 mm). Long-term means for 1929-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
