Muğla

Muğla lies in a mountain basin north of the Gulf of Gökova, inland from the deeply indented Aegean coast. Its white houses and narrow streets occupy slopes above a fertile plain. The town belonged to the Menteşe principality, and the great mosque founded by İbrahim Bey in the fourteenth century preserves the memory of its early Turkish rulers.

After the Ottoman conquest, Muğla became an administrative centre of the Menteşe district. In 1493 Şücaeddin Bey commissioned another mosque, later known as the Kurşunlu. The town's market and religious foundations served the surrounding villages, linking the upland basin with the ports and coastal valleys to the south and west. Buildings from successive periods stood among the houses as Muğla's role in the region grew.