Population: 650
High in the hills above Denizli the sleepy little village of Belenardıç is known locally for its wonderful organic kekik (thyme), grown here in vast quantities, then cargoed to İzmir and shipped abroad. It’s the sort of place where donkeys still browse the grass verges for fodder and where old men snooze in the sun in front of the mosque.
That mosque is what makes it worth taking the trouble to come up here (that and the drive up through lovely unspoilt pine forest). It is one of a group of externally uninteresting but internally magnificent painted mosques clustered around Denizli and only just being noticed by the outside world.
The mosque was erected in 1884 and provided with painted images that completely cover the walls and mihrab a year later. Most of the paintings are of stylised flowers but beside the mimber there is a panel depicting the mosque at Mecca with the Ka’aba in the centre, while on the lefthand wall three panels show scales for weighing the souls of the dead, steps down to hell and steps up to heaven. Hell comes in the shape of a cauldron of flames with a catapult to hurl sinners into it, while heaven is yet more flowers. Beside the scales a pair of blue scissors are apparently there to cut out the tongues of sinners.
In comparison with the ceiing of the mosque at Boğaziçi the one at Belenardıç is rough-hewn although the simple outer door is very attractive. In the narthex area there are more paintings including one of a mosque that is surrounded by graffitied phrases in Arabic.
Transport info
There are a few timetabled dolmuşes direct from Denizli otogar to Belenardıç but if the times don’t suit you you can also take the Akköy dolmuş which continues to Gölemezli. There the driver will probably be able to arrange an unofficial “taxi” to take you the rest of the way, a more expensive but more reliable option. Ideally you should try to visit the similarly lovely old mosque in Akköy on the same trip.
