Eshab-ı Kehf Cave, also known as Ashab-ı Kehf Cave or Seven Sleepers' Cave, ( tr, Eshab-ı Kehf Mağarası, ''Ashab-ı Kehf Mağarası'' or ''Yedi Uyurlar Mağarası'') is a

show cave A show cave—also called tourist cave, public cave, and, in the United States, commercial cave—is a cave which has been made accessible to the public for guided visits. Definition A show cave is a cave that has been made accessible to ...

situated to the north of Tarsus, an ilçe (district) in

Mersin Province Mersin Province ( tr, ), formerly İçel Province ( tr, ), is a province in southern Turkey, on the Mediterranean coast between Antalya and Adana. The provincial capital and the biggest city in the province is Mersin, which is composed of fo ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

. The cave is named after the

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

word اصحاب کهف ("Ashāb-i Kahf") itself from the Arabic "aṣḥāb al kahf", "people of the cave", for

Seven Sleepers In the Islamic and Christian traditions, the Seven Sleepers, otherwise known as the Sleepers of Ephesus and Companions of the Cave, is a medieval legend about a group of youths who hid inside a cave outside the city of Ephesus (modern-day S ...

Ephesus Ephesus (; grc-gre, Ἔφεσος, Éphesos; tr, Efes; may ultimately derive from hit, 𒀀𒉺𒊭, Apaša) was a city in ancient Greece on the coast of Ionia, southwest of present-day Selçuk in İzmir Province, Turkey. It was built in t ...

, a belief in

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

and

Islamic Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God (or '' Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the mai ...

tradition. The cave is about to Tarsus and about to

Mersin Mersin (), also known as İçel, is a large city and a port on the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean coast of southern Turkey. It is the provincial capital of Mersin Province, Mersin (İçel) Province. It is made up of four municipalities and dis ...

. It is at the foothill of a small hill. The cave is small, not comparable to other caves of the province. However, it is a famed to be the cave of the Seven Sleepers. The exact location of the Seven Sleepers' cave is not known, and there are many other places including some in Turkey claiming to be the cave of the Seven Sleepers. Next to the cave, there is a mosque commissioned by the

Ottoman sultan The sultans of the Ottoman Empire ( tr, Osmanlı padişahları), who were all members of the Ottoman dynasty (House of Osman), ruled over the transcontinental empire from its perceived inception in 1299 to its dissolution in 1922. At its hei ...

Abdülaziz Abdulaziz ( ota, عبد العزيز, ʿAbdü'l-ʿAzîz; tr, Abdülaziz; 8 February 18304 June 1876) was the 32nd List of sultans of the Ottoman Empire, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and reigned from 25 June 1861 to 30 May 1876, when he was 187 ...

(reigned 1861–1876), and built in 1873. The mosque's tall

minaret A minaret (; ar, منارة, translit=manāra, or ar, مِئْذَنة, translit=miʾḏana, links=no; tr, minare; fa, گل‌دسته, translit=goldaste) is a type of tower typically built into or adjacent to mosques. Minarets are generall ...

with three şerefes (balconies) were added later.Mersin traveller page
/ref> The other probable locations of the Seven Sleepers in Turkey are: *

İzmir Province İzmir Province ( tr, İzmir ili) is a province and metropolitan municipality of Turkey in western Anatolia, situated along the Aegean coast. Its capital is the city of İzmir, which is in itself composed of the province's central 11 distri ...

Lice Louse ( : lice) is the common name for any member of the clade Phthiraptera, which contains nearly 5,000 species of wingless parasitic insects. Phthiraptera has variously been recognized as an order, infraorder, or a parvorder, as a result o ...

Diyarbakır Province Diyarbakır Province ( tr, Diyarbakır ili, Zazaki: Suke Diyarbekır ku, Parêzgeha Amedê) is a Provinces of Turkey, province in southeastern Turkey. The province covers an area of 15,355 km2 and its population is 1,528,958. The provincia ...

Afşin Afşin is a town and district of Kahramanmaraş Province in the Mediterranean region of Turkey. Afşin-Elbistan power stations Two coal fired power stations are operational and are said to be damaging health via air pollution Air po ...

Kahramanmaraş Province Kahramanmaraş Province kurdish( tr, Kahramanmaraş ili ) is a province of Turkey. Its provincial capital is the city of Kahramanmaraş, the traffic code is 46. Geography Kahramanmaraş is traversed by the northeasterly line of equal latitude and ...

(see

Eshab-ı Kehf Kulliye Eshab-ı Kehf Kulliye is a historical building complex in Kahramanmaraş Province, Turkey. Geography The complex is next to a cave in on a hill named Bencilus to Afşin ilçe (district) of Kahramanmaraş Province. Its distance to Kahramanma ...

)

References

{{Caves of Turkey Show caves in Turkey Landforms of Mersin Province Tarsus, Mersin Tourist attractions in Mersin Province