Keşan

Keşan lies in Thrace on routes between the Aegean coast, the Dardanelles and the inland plains. The nearby fortress of Rusion belonged to a region contested by Byzantine, Bulgarian and Ottoman forces; it passed to the Ottomans in the fourteenth century. In the town stands a mosque endowed by the grand vizier Hersekzâde Ahmed Pasha. His foundation deed of 1511 mentions a mosque in the village of Rus, generally identified with this building, whose stone walls and dome mark the early Ottoman settlement.