The city of Eskisehir has a history going back thousands of years, and has been home to many civilizations, including the Hittites, Phrygians, Romans, Byzantines, Seljuks and Ottomans. So this is not only a geographical crossroads but a cultural melting pot. The old quarter of the city known as Odunpazari, and to locals as Yukari Mahalle or Hatap Pazari, is one of the districts where the Turks first settled after they began their conquest of the region in 1074. Legend relates that the first settlers chose the healthiest and airiest area to build their homes by hanging up shee'sg lungs in three places: Sarhöyük (the ancient Dorylaeion), Köprübasi, the site of thermal springs on the edge of the Porsuk River (the ancient Tembris), and Odunpazari on the hillside south of the city where there is thought to have been an earlier settlement in Roman and Byzantine times.

While the lungs in the first two areas quickly spoilt, that in Odunpazari remained fresh for days, and the choice was made.
Odunpazari consists of several neighbourhoods, of which Eskisehir had 17 in all when the 17th-century Turkish traveller Evliya Çelebi visited the city. This was where the Turkish and other Moslem inhabitants lived in past centuries. The name Odunpazari means Timber Market, since wood cut in nearby forests was brought here for sale by local villagers. In late Ottoman times the Regie Administration set up by creditor nations took delivery of logs in this market for export abroad in repayment for Turkey's debts.
Today the district is still characterised by many traditional Turkish houses lining the narrow winding streets. The houses are timber-framed with the spaces between the timbers filled with adobe or brick, and some still have their original lattices and bay windows.

Among the numerous mosques in the districts the most notable is Kursunlu Mosque with its sadirvan (fountain for ablutions) in the courtyard, and complex consisting of a posting house where travellers hired horses in the past, a public kitchen and kervansaray, rooms for medrese students and a Mevlevi dervish lodge. The mosque and its associated institutions were constructed by Mustafa Pasa, a vezir of Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent in 1525. The mosque has a single leaded dome over the main space, and the portico with its six marble columns and pointed archers is roofed by five small domes. The ashlar minaret is faceted.

Try ordering a glass of tea and a delicious crisp simit, which seem to taste better here than anywhere else, and soon you will be refreshed for setting out again.

* Associate Professor Dr Ertugrul Algan is a lecturer at Anadolu University.