Kesik Minare

Kesik Minare

Ruins of mosque

The Kesik Minare (Broken Minaret) standing in the streets of Kaleiçi (Old Antalya) in southern Turkey, was originally built as a Roman temple in the 2nd century AD. In the 7th century, it was converted into a Byzantine church in honor of the Virgin Mary, but it was heavily damaged in the 8th century during the Arab invasions. In the 10th century it was repaired again. The church was converted into a mosque when the Sultanate of Rum acquired Antalya in the early 13th century, which was when the actual minaret was added. In 1361, when the crusader king of Cyprus took Antalya from the Seljuks, it became a church again, only to become reconverted into a mosque during the rule of Sehzade Korkut. The main building was destroyed in a fire of 1846, but the minaret survived as the Kesik Minare.