The town is littered by many historic structures, most of which date back to Seljuk era, and some of which were renovated recently, while others waiting for the same favour in a halfly ruined state.
Of these, "must-see"s include:
Caravanserai (Kervansaray), (very close to the town square). As a town on one of the major trade routes into Anatolia from the East, old Malatya surely had a caravanserai. A rather big one, it's easy to visualize the chambers where exhausted travellers and tradesmen slept, where the fires glowed, and where the horses were fed thanks to recent renovation. Nowadays it sometimes hosts local carpet and trinket exhibitions.Free. �
Great Mosque (Ulu Cami), (southeast of Caravanserai — walk up the street in front of the caravanserai for 500 metres, and then turn left). Open all day. While not of the comparable size with the other "great mosque"s of the country and its plain stone walls may not seem like offering much from the outside, just the greenish blue and dark blue tiles inside of this edifice which dates back to 1224 is well worth the effort to get to Battalgazi. Built by the Seljuks, you enter the building through a portal with some masonry work, typical of that era. The only Seljuk monument in Turkey with an inner open-air courtyard (though more such monuments exist in Iran), its southern part—the one at the entrance—is topped by a small dome with small green tiles. The rest of the building is a peaceful maze of colonnades and arches, but what really impressing are the tiles on the walls facing the inner courtyard: typically Seljuk in colours and design, the tiles together form a (large) number of geometrical forms (none of which, no matter how small, was repeated elsewhere in the mosque) and highly delicate Arabic caligraphy. As this is a seldomly-visited edifice (both by sightseers and worshippers), you will most likely have all the mosque to yourself.Free. �
A number of other tombs and smaller monuments, parts of which are in ruins, are scattered throughout the town.
A neighbourhood between the Great Mosque and the central square consists of whitewashed houses and streets surfaced by large stones, creating a nice but faux preserved townscape, as none of those buildings are actually historic.
Ruins of Roman-built city walls, including a re-built arch gate, can be seen just off the road from Malatya.
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Battalgazi
Where To Stay & Best Hotels in Battalgazi - updated May 2024
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Battalgazi Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.
