Located in Beyşehir, Konya, Eşrefoğlu Mosque is a wooden mosque built without using any nails between 1296 and 1299, during the late years of Seljuks of Rum. The mosque takes its name after a small beylik called Eshrefids who rebuilt the city of Beyşehir as their capital. The mosque has been on the UNESCO World Heritage tentative list since 2011.
While constructing the Eşrefoğlu Mosque, Eshrefids used a building technique called kündekari which involves joining wooden parts without using nails or glue.
The structure has a rectangular plan measuring 31.8 by 46.55 meters. Surprisingly, the mosque has managed to preserve its original features even though it was mostly built of wood. For instance, the roof is supported by 42 wooden columns made of cedar. According to oral accounts, these cedars had been soaked in the Beyşehir Lake for six months before being used in the mosque’s construction. Additionally, at the mosque’s center is a snow pit filled with snow brought from the nearby mountains to cool the interior during summer. This pit also supplied the wood with the required humidity.
