Bezirhane, which has defied the years in Aksaray: Built by carving into the rocks, it has become a center of attraction for tourists.
Carved into the rock, Bezirhane is accessed through an arched entrance. Inside, there's a wooden linseed oil pool. Dating between the 12th and 13th centuries, Bezirhane was built on a single-nave, longitudinal rectangular plan.
The frescoes on the ceiling and walls of the building, which include scenes of Baptism, Metamorphosis, Three Hebrew Youths in the Oven, Deesis, Saints and Martyrs, were damaged due to excessive humidity. While the Bezirhane was used as a place to produce linseed oil, which the local people used for illumination during the time it was built.
Linseed oil is obtained by crushing and processing a type of grass called Izgın in the linseed oil mill and then processing the oil extracted from the grass.
Birol Tezer (53) stated that Bezirhane, which sheds light on the history of the local people, was built for the production of oil used in lighting, and said, "Our ancestors extracted oil from the Izgın plant here. They ate the first quality of it and used the second quality in products used for lighting such as kerosene lamps. As the oxcarts moved outside, this device would turn. After turning, oil would appear. They would sell the oil from here to Aksaray or its villages by mules."
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