Niksar

Niksar stands in the fertile valley of the Kelkit River, below a fortified hill on the roads between the Black Sea and inland Anatolia. Known in antiquity as Neocaesarea, it became a capital of the Danishmendid rulers after the Turkish conquest of the region. Its walls, tombs and religious buildings preserve the history of an early Turkish centre amid older Roman and Byzantine remains.

The Yağıbasan Madrasa, built in 1157–1158, is among the earliest surviving madrasas of Turkish Anatolia. Its enclosed courtyard and great dome sheltered a place of learning within the citadel. Niksar passed to the Seljuk sultanate in 1175 and later to the Ottomans, but the monuments of the Danishmendids continued to distinguish the town. The valley's crops and the routes crossing the Pontic mountains sustained its connection with neighbouring cities.