Kırşehir


Kırşehir, historically known as Mocissus or Mokissos and Justinianopolis in ancient times, is a city in Turkey. It is the seat of Kırşehir Province and Kırşehir District. Its population is 162,989.

History

The history of Kırşehir dates back to the Hittites. During the period of the Hittites, the basin of Kırşehir was known as the country of "Ahiyuva", meaning "the Land of the Achaeans", as the Greeks were known to the Hittites. This basin also took the name Cappadocia at the time of the Romans and Byzantines.
Kırşehir was once known as Aquae Saravenae. The Seljuks took the city in the 1070s and bestowed the current name. In Turkish, "Kır Şehri" means "steppe city" or "prairie city". It became the chief town of a sanjak in the Ottoman vilayet of Angora, which possessed, 1912, 8,000 inhabitants, most of them Muslim Turks.
In the 19th century, Kırşehir was attached to the sanjak of Ankara. From 1867 until 1922, Kırşehir was part of Angora vilayet. In 1924, Kırşehir was made capital of the new Kırşehir Province. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk visited the city in 1921 and 1931.

Historic buildings and structures

Kesikköprü

is one of the bridges built by the Seljuk Empire in Central Anatolia. It is on the way of Kırşehir-Konya, about to the south of Kırşehir, and across the River Kızılırmak with its 13 parts. Those who came from Izmir and tried to reach Sivas and Erzurum from Tokat passed over Kesikköprü. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the bridge took the name of Kesikköprü due to the fact that caravan roads were cut off by highwaymen.
There is an old Seljuk mosque built during the reign of either Mesud I or Kilij Arslan II. In the countryside is a ruined türbe of a possible dervish during the times of either Seljuks or Ottomans.
The inscription on the bridge says it was built by Atabeg Izzu’d-Din Muhammed in 646 of the Hijrah/1248 of the Christian era during the rule of Keykavus, the son of Keyhüsrev. The inscription sunk in the river in 1953. The three-line inscription on the stone base can be read with difficulty:

Ashik Pasha Mausoleum

is the tomb of the 14-century Sufi poet Aşık Pasha who died in 1332.

Kırşehir Castle

Kırşehir Castle is located on a hill mound, believed to have been built in the 4th century.
It covers an area of 10 acres. It is thought to have been built by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian. Nothing remains from the castle.

Geographical center of the world

The village of Seyfe within Kırşehir district is considered the geographical center of Earth, as it lies at the intersection of the 39th parallel north and the 34th meridian east.

Ecclesiastical history

Metropolitan Archbishopric of Mocissus

Mocissus was also a Christian bishopric, and became a metropolitan see when, as Procopius informs us, Justinian divided Cappadocia into three provinces and made this fortified site in north-western Cappadocia metropolis of Cappadocia Tertia, giving it the name of Justinianopolis. Nothing else is known of its history, and its name should perhaps be written Mocessus. There is no doubt that the site of Mocissus, or Mocessus, is that which is occupied by the modern city of Kırşehir. It figured in the Notitiæ episcopatuum until the 12th or 13th century.
Only a few of its bishops are known: the earliest, Peter, attended the Fifth Ecumenical Council ; the last, whose name is not known, was a Catholic, and was consecrated after the mid-15th century Catholic Council of Florence by Patriarch Metrophanes II of Constantinople.

Titular see

The diocese was restored in 1895 as a titular archbishopric of the highest rank.
It's vacant, having had the following incumbents:
Kırşehir has a Mediterranean or continental climate, with cold, snowy winters and hot, dry summers. Light rainfall occurs year-round, except for late summer when rain is virtually absent.
Highest recorded temperature: on 14 August 2019
Lowest recorded temperature: on 6 January 1942

Notable people