Alaeddin Hill

Ancient citadel mound at the heart of the city, now a public park

Alaeddin Hill is the round green knoll at the centre of Konya, a public park that doubles as one of the largest open archaeological tells in Asia Minor. The hill has been settled continuously since the Bronze Age — Hittites, Phrygians, Romans, Byzantines and Seljuks all built their citadels here, each on top of the one before — and it forms the symbolic and physical heart of the old city.

At the summit is the Alâeddin Mosque, the principal Seljuk monument; on the western edge are the foundations of the Seljuk palace of the Sultans of Rum, now reduced to a single arched ruin under a modern protective canopy. The rest of the hill is gardens — gravel paths, plane trees, tea kiosks, occasional buskers, and old men playing chess at concrete tables. A perimeter road encircles the hill, and the major Seljuk madrasas (Karatay, İnce Minareli, Sırçalı) sit just outside its rim, all within a few minutes' walk of each other.

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Excavations have shown that the hill is an artificial tell — the accumulated debris of more than five thousand years of human settlement, from Neolithic huts at the bottom to Hittite, Phrygian, Roman, Byzantine and Seljuk layers stacked on top. Konya as Iconium was the home town of the early Christian Saint Thecla, who is said to have been martyred here. Most of the layers remain unexcavated and lie beneath the lawns of the modern park.

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