Meydan Baths (Akşehir)

The Meydan Baths (Square Baths) of Akşehir are a historic Ottoman hammam in Akşehir District of Konya Province in central Anatolia, in the town most celebrated as the home and burial place of Nasreddin Hoca — the 13th-century philosopher-jester whose paradoxical wisdom anecdotes have made him a beloved cultural hero throughout the Turkic, Persian, and broader Islamic world. Named for their location on or near the central meydan (town square), these baths occupied the most socially prominent position in the urban geography of a town whose identity has been shaped by the spirit of irreverent wisdom that Nasreddin Hoca embodied. The Meydan Baths served the central community of Akşehir as the primary civic bathing facility of a Konya province market town that has maintained a significant literary and cultural heritage since the Seljuk period.