This square building in Geyve carries two names, and the Ministry's own page gives both. It calls the building the Geyve Elvan Bey imaret and records it as one of the charitable foundations built in 1450-51 by Elvan Bey, son of Pasacik Ağa the chief carver, who was himself born of Mutahhara Hatun, daughter of Sultan Veled, the son of Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi; Elvan Bey's father was Sinan Bey, who lived in the reign of Mehmed II. Other sources refer to the same building as the Geyve Sinan Bey lodge. It is registered in the Ottoman survey of Bektashi lodges of 1827, held in the prime ministry archives, among the lodges listed in the military register, as the Sinan Baba Bektashi lodge of the Geyve district.
The building consists of a central dome, a smaller cross-vaulted bay in front of it with a flat ceiling, and two domed side wings. It has no minaret. Its first repair was carried out in 1696 by Bostancibasi Mustafa Ağa, and the small three-arched porch was added in 1746 to a building originally built without one. It later served as a municipal store, was repaired by the General Directorate of Foundations in 1968, and now houses the Geyve district public library. Geyve is 27 kilometres from the city centre.
Getting there
- Access
- Twenty-seven kilometres from the city centre; city transport reaches it.
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).
