İlyas Bey Caravanserai (Didim)

The İlyas Bey Caravanserai belongs to a religious and civic complex built in 1404 by İlyas Bey, ruler of the Menteşe Beylik, within the grounds of the ancient city of Miletus near modern Didim in Aydın province. Alongside the caravanserai, the külliye includes a mosque, a madrasa for religious instruction, and a hamam, together forming one of the most complete surviving examples of early fifteenth-century Anatolian Beylik architecture. The caravanserai itself was built to shelter merchants and travelers moving along the trade routes of the western Anatolian coast at a time when Miletus's harbor, though already silting up, still anchored regional commerce. Standing amid the Roman and Hellenistic ruins of Miletus, the İlyas Bey complex marks one of the last phases of settlement at the site, and today it is visited together with Miletus's ancient theater and other remains.