3 Days Sivas City Tour: Seljuk Medreses, Ulu Camii and Behrampasa Han (Group Tour)

Highlights of the 3-Day Sivas City Tour

Sivas lies on a high plain in the east of Central Anatolia, at the point where branches of the Silk Road crossed the ancient Royal Road. Known as Sebasteia in Byzantine times and later a leading city of the Anatolian Seljuks, it holds one of the finest groups of 13th-century stone architecture in Turkey. This compact three-day break gives you a full guided day among its museums, medreses, mosques and caravanserais, with airport transfers and hotel nights on either side.

Your guided day opens with the Sivas Archaeological Museum and the Ataturk Congress and Ethnography Museum, housed in the building where the Sivas Congress gathered in 1919. In the centre you then discover three celebrated medreses: the Gok (Blue) Medrese of 1271, named after its turquoise tilework; the Sifaiye Medrese of 1218, founded as a hospital and medical school; and the Cifte Minareli Medrese, also from 1271, whose twin minarets rise above a richly carved portal. These monumental gateways, covered in intricate geometric and floral stone carving, are a signature of the Seljuk style.

The Ulu Camii, completed in 1196 and the oldest mosque in the city, impresses with its plain, forest-like prayer hall, while the Behrampasa Han of 1573 recalls the Ottoman period with lion reliefs framing its windows. Small cylindrical Seljuk tombs known as kumbets are scattered around town, and a lunch break lets you taste regional dishes such as kebabs and meatballs. Two nights of hotel accommodation, two breakfasts, hotel room taxes, a professional English-speaking guide, air-conditioned transport and the listed entrance fees are included.