The Mama Hatun complex sits in the town of Tercan, about 110 kilometres east of Erzincan on the road to Erzurum. The kümbet (tomb tower) is a striking circular building with a tall conical stone roof, set inside a ring of walls that protect a small courtyard with eleven secondary tombs around the perimeter. The whole ensemble — caravanserai, mausoleum and small mosque — was built in the late twelfth century by Mama Hatun, sister of the Saltukid emir of Erzurum.
The masonry is unusually refined: precise courses of grey-buff limestone with intricate carved muqarnas around the doorway. Stylistically the building bridges Anatolian-Seljuk and Armenian traditions, which suits its location on the medieval frontier between the two cultures. The site is included on Turkey's tentative UNESCO list.