The free-standing minaret
Among the best-known examples of Dulkadirid architecture, felled in the 2023 earthquake and rebuilt to its original form.
Nedim Ardoğa — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Dosseman — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Dosseman — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Dosseman — CC BY-SA 4.0
The minaret of this mosque hit the ground before dawn on 6 February 2023, and it now stands again, stone by stone. The Ulu Camii reopened for prayer on 16 March 2026, Laylat al-Qadr, after roughly a year and a half of restoration under Turkey's Culture Ministry: the damaged stonework was dismantled, numbered and re-laid, the structure strengthened from within, and the minaret rebuilt to its original form. The official ceremony followed on 6 May 2026, with President Erdoğan joining by video link. Visiting today is less about ticking off an old monument than watching a city piece its memory back together. The building is the most important thing left in Maraş by the Dulkadirids, the Turkmen dynasty that ruled the city before the Ottomans. The portal inscription credits Alaüddevle Bozkurt Bey in 1496; other sources say his father Süleyman Bey built it between 1442 and 1454 and the son renewed it. The design is plain: a rectangular cut-stone hall, a portal with crisp muqarnas carving, a mihrab worked with muqarnas, palmette and lotus motifs. The star is the minaret, entirely free-standing on a square base and among the best-known pieces of Dulkadirid architecture. Do not expect Istanbul-scale grandeur; the pleasure here is in stone detail and a modest interior you take in within half an hour. What makes it worth the stop is where it sits: at the foot of Maraş Castle on the edge of the old bazaar, with the Taş Medrese next door and the Kapalı Çarşı, whose shopkeepers moved back into their restored shops in summer 2026 after three years trading from a container bazaar. Treat the mosque as the start of a short walk: prayer, then the bazaar, then the climb to the castle for the view. August heat pushes towards 40°C, so go early or after late afternoon; spring and autumn are the right seasons. Entry is free, as in every Turkish mosque, outside prayer times and in modest dress, with a longer closure around Friday noon. Parts of the surrounding quarter are still a construction site, so expect broken pavements and hoardings, and a pushchair will need lifting here and there. Even so, few places tell the story of post-earthquake Turkey this plainly.
Among the best-known examples of Dulkadirid architecture, felled in the 2023 earthquake and rebuilt to its original form.
Crisp muqarnas with palmette and lotus motifs cut in stone; the portal inscription dates the work to 1496.
The Taş Medrese and the restored Kapalı Çarşı are steps away, with the castle directly above.
Kurtuluş Mahallesi, Dulkadiroğlu, below the castle beside the Kapalı Çarşı
If you are in the bazaar anyway it is two minutes away and takes half an hour at most, so do not skip it. But do not plan a trip to Maraş around it alone; it is a small, handsome mosque rather than a grand one, and its value lies in its story and setting more than its size.
The mosque and the covered bazaar are fully open, but parts of the old quarter are still a building site, so expect broken pavements and hoardings. A pushchair works with some lifting; the climb to the castle is steps and slope and does not suit one.
