Payas Sokullu Mehmet Pasha Complex

In the industrial town of Payas, overlooking the Mediterranean coast is a beautiful fortified complex made up of castles, a mosque, a Turkish Bath, a covered market, and a fortified inn. The sprawling complex is one of the best-preserved examples of this type of Ottoman architecture.

The complex is made up of three primary parts: Payas Castle, Demon Tower, and the Sokullu Mehmet Pasha Caravanserai complex.

Payas Castle, which is rather unique compared to most castles found in Turkey, was originally built by the Genoese as a seven-towered castle surrounded by a deep moat. The castle was given by the Genoese to the Knights Templar when the region came under Crusader control. A few centuries after the demise of the crusader kingdoms, the region came under the control of the Ottomans who rebuilt the castle when they built the neighboring Caravanserai in the 1500’s.

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Unfortunately, the inner parts of the castle are closed to visitors with access restricted to the gate house and the grounds between the moat and the foot of the castle walls.

The second, and largest part of the complex is the Sokullu Mehmet Pasha Caravanserai, a massive fortified inn built in 1574 to serve the needs of travellers. The caravanserai was designed by Mimar Sinan and commissioned and funded by Sokullu Mehmet Pasha at the strategic point where the Hajj road to Mecca diverted from the trade routes to Aleppo, Central Asia and beyond. The complex was built to house travellers and keep them and their goods safe as well as to provide a place to wash, worship, and even do business.

The mosque, referred to as Sarı Selim Mosque, is a small, though finely built building mentioned in the travel journals of Evliya Chelebi, the Ottoman Marco Polo, who passed through here nearly 500 years ago. The massive 350-year-old olive tree which sits in the mosque courtyard is impossible to miss. The ancient tree produces 300 kgs of olives every year, though the claim that it’s the oldest fruit-bearing olive tree in the world is completely unfounded.

Interestingly, the Caravanserai portion of the complex is now being used by the local government as office space. While this doesn’t sound that great, they’ve maintained the historic nature of the place and filled a historic building with people going about their everyday tasks, giving it a rather attractive, living history feel. The covered market with its massive vault is being used as business space for local women who have opened up cafes, restaurants, and other shops.

A little way apart from Payas Castle and the caravanserai is a small fortress known as Demon Tower (Cin Kule). It was built three years after Sokullu Mehmet Pasha Caravanserai to protect the harbour which became the site of a new Ottoman shipyard used to begin the invasion of Cyprus. Today the tower has lost some of its old charm and has been restored and turned into a nice little café.