Akşehir is a municipality and

district A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

Konya Province Konya Province () is a province and metropolitan municipality in southwest Central Anatolia, Turkey. Its area is 40,838 km2, making it the largest province by area, and its population is 2,296,347 (2022). The provincial capital is the city ...

, Turkey. Its area is , and its population is 93,965 (2022). It was known historically as Philomelium. The town is situated at the edge of a fertile plain, on the north side of the

Sultan Mountains The Sultan Mountains (), also known as Sultan Dagh range or Sultan Dag, is a short mountain range on the western edge of the Anatolian Plateau, Turkey with highest elevation of . The town of Sultandağı is their namesake. They are made up of m ...

. Its elevation is . Aksehir station

History

Philomelion (Φιλομήλιον) was probably a Pergamene foundation on the great Graeco-Roman Highway from

Ephesus Ephesus (; ; ; may ultimately derive from ) was an Ancient Greece, ancient Greek city on the coast of Ionia, in present-day Selçuk in İzmir Province, Turkey. It was built in the 10th century BC on the site of Apasa, the former Arzawan capital ...

to the east and

Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, orator, writer and Academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises tha ...

, on his way to

Cilicia Cilicia () is a geographical region in southern Anatolia, extending inland from the northeastern coasts of the Mediterranean Sea. Cilicia has a population ranging over six million, concentrated mostly at the Cilician plain (). The region inclu ...

, dated some of his extant correspondence there. St Paul passed the city on his second and third missionary journey in the first century and his impact can be traced by numerous Christian inscriptions in the region. The Smyrniotes wrote the letter that describes the

martyrdom A martyr (, ''mártys'', 'witness' stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an external party. In colloqui ...

Polycarp Polycarp (; , ''Polýkarpos''; ; AD 69 155) was a Christian Metropolis of Smyrna, bishop of Smyrna. According to the ''Martyrdom of Polycarp'', he died a martyr, bound and burned at the stake, then stabbed when the fire failed to consume his bo ...

to the townspeople of Philomelion. The town became at some point a

bishopric In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associate ...

and remains a

titular see A titular see in various churches is an episcopal see of a former diocese that no longer functions, sometimes called a "dead diocese". The ordinary or hierarch of such a see may be styled a "titular metropolitan" (highest rank), "titular archbi ...

of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

. At some point after 1071, the city fell to the Seljuk

Sultanate of Rum The Sultanate of Rum was a culturally Turco-Persian Sunni Muslim state, established over conquered Byzantine territories and peoples (Rum) of Anatolia by the Seljuk Turks following their entry into Anatolia after the Battle of Manzikert in 1071. ...

. It was retaken by forces of the

First Crusade The First Crusade (1096–1099) was the first of a series of religious wars, or Crusades, initiated, supported and at times directed by the Latin Church in the Middle Ages. The objective was the recovery of the Holy Land from Muslim conquest ...

and in 1098 Stephen of Blois met emperor

Alexios I Komnenos Alexios I Komnenos (, – 15 August 1118), Latinization of names, Latinized as Alexius I Comnenus, was Byzantine Emperor, Byzantine emperor from 1081 to 1118. After usurper, usurping the throne, he was faced with a collapsing empire and ...

here, persuading him to not continue his march to

Antioch Antioch on the Orontes (; , ) "Antioch on Daphne"; or "Antioch the Great"; ; ; ; ; ; ; . was a Hellenistic Greek city founded by Seleucus I Nicator in 300 BC. One of the most important Greek cities of the Hellenistic period, it served as ...

. Alexios returned in one of his final campaigns in 1116 to Philomelion which he conquered and returned with many Greek refugees to Byzantine lands. In 1146, the town was taken by emperor

Manuel I Komnenos Manuel I Komnenos (; 28 November 1118 – 24 September 1180), Latinized as Comnenus, also called Porphyrogenitus (; " born in the purple"), was a Byzantine emperor of the 12th century who reigned over a crucial turning point in the history o ...

after defeating forces of the

at Akroinon. Manuel burned the town and released several prisoners who had been detained here. The town was taken a final time by German members of the

Third Crusade The Third Crusade (1189–1192) was an attempt led by King Philip II of France, King Richard I of England and Emperor Frederick Barbarossa to reconquer the Holy Land following the capture of Jerusalem by the Ayyubid sultan Saladin in 1187. F ...

in 1190 but rebuilt in 1196 by

Kaykhusraw I Kaykhusraw I ( or Ghiyāth ad-Dīn Kaykhusraw ibn Kilij Arslān; ), the eleventh and youngest son of Kilij Arslan II, was Seljuk Sultan of Rûm. He succeeded his father in 1192, but had to fight his brothers for control of the Sultanate, losing t ...

and resettled with Greek captives taken on a raid from Caria. It became an important

Seljuk Seljuk (, ''Selcuk'') or Saljuq (, ''Saljūq'') may refer to: * Seljuk Empire (1051–1153), a medieval empire in the Middle East and central Asia * Seljuk dynasty (c. 950–1307), the ruling dynasty of the Seljuk Empire and subsequent polities * S ...

town, and late in the 14th century passed into Ottoman hands. There Sultan

Bayezid I Bayezid I (; ), also known as Bayezid the Thunderbolt (; ; – 8 March 1403), was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1389 to 1402. He adopted the title of ''Sultan-i Rûm'', ''Rûm'' being the Arabic name for the Eastern Roman Empire. In 139 ...

is said by Ali of Yezd to have died after his defeat at the Battle of Ankara at the hands of Emir Timur. The town's landmarks include the alleged tomb of Nasreddin Hoca, the tomb of Seydi Mahmut, the house used as headquarters by the

Turkish Army The Turkish Land Forces () is the main branch of the Turkish Armed Forces responsible for Army, land-based military operations. The army was formed on November 8, 1920, after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Significant campaigns since the ...

during the last phase of the

Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922) The Greco-Turkish War of 1919–1922 was fought between Greece and the Turkish National Movement during the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire in the aftermath of World War I, between 15 May 1919 and 14 October 1922. This conflict was a par ...

, other monuments and old Turkish houses. Between 5 July and 10 July each year, commemorations with concerts and other social activities are held to the memory of Akşehir's famous resident, Nasreddin Hodja. With its rich architectural heritage, Akşehir is a member of the

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of the county of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. It lies by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. The population of the Norwich ...

-based European Association of Historic Towns and Regions.

Name

The Turkish name literally means "white city". It is a compound of two words, namely ''ak'', "white", a Turkic word; and ''şehir'', "town", which is from

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 ...

''shahr'', "town". In English usage other spellings of the name include Ak-Shehr, Ak-Shahr, Akshehr, Akshahr, Akshehir, and Aqshahr.

Composition

There are 55

neighbourhoods A neighbourhood (Commonwealth English) or neighborhood (American English) is a geographically localized community within a larger town, city, suburb or rural area, sometimes consisting of a single street and the buildings lining it. Neighbourh ...

in Akşehir District: * Adsız * Ahicelal * Alanyurt * Altunkalem * Altuntaş * Anıt * Atakent * Bozlağan * Çakıllar * Çamlı * Cankurtaran * Çay * Çimendere * Çimenli * Değirmenköy *

Doğrugöz Doğrugöz (formerly ''Eğrigöz'') is a neighbourhood of the municipality and district of Akşehir, Konya Province, Turkey. Its population is 3,306 (2022). Before the 2013 reorganisation, it was a town (''belde''). Geography The town is at ...

* Engilli * Eskikale * Gazi * Gedil * Gölçayır * Gözpınarı * Ilıcak * İstasyon * Karabulut * Karahüyük * Kileci * Kızılca * Kozağaç * Kuruçay * Kuşcu * Meydan * Nasreddin Hoca * Ortaca * Ortaköy * Reis * Sarayköy * Savaş * Selçuk * Seyran * Söğütlü * Sorkun * Tekkeköy * Tipi * Tipiköy * Üçhüyük * Ulupınar * Yarenler * Yaşarlar * Yaylabelen * Yazla * Yeni * Yeniköy * Yeşilköy * Yıldırım Bayezid

Climate

Akşehir experiences a

hot-summer Mediterranean climate A Mediterranean climate ( ), also called a dry summer climate, described by Köppen and Trewartha as ''Cs'', is a temperate climate type that occurs in the lower mid-latitudes (normally 30 to 44 north and south latitude). Such climates typic ...

(

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...

: ''Csa''), with hot, dry summers, and chilly, rainy, often snowy winters.

References

;Attribution *

External links

District governor's official website

District municipality's official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aksehir Populated places in Konya Province Districts of Konya Province Metropolitan district municipalities in Turkey Catholic titular sees in Asia