The restoration of Çorakçı han in Aksaray

Cities might be the best cultural promotion tool, by determining their place in the history of art, culture and architecture through the historical and natural properties they own, and transferring the works and structures to the future. Aksaray city center, which was built on the ruins of the old city in the east of the Ulu River, has always been a settlement. For this reason, the properties inherited from one historical period to another developed, with the additions made according to the needs of the period, ensured the sustainability of the historical city. However, with the rapid unplanned construction in the city center in the last period, the existing historical buildings were demolished and new buildings were built instead of them. The studies on the city of Aksaray, like the studies on the other Anatolian cities, were limited in number. Research and publications were mostly made on existing structures. The historical urban fabric will gain its original identity with the ruins as well as the structures that have survived to the present day. In this case, revealing or detecting the destroyed properties has gained importance. The inner city inn, referred to in the literature as Çorakçı Inn, is one of these buildings. In Aksaray, which is at the intersection of historical trade routes and has important commercial structures, there are considerable numbers of Late Ottoman Period inner-city commercial structures. The only surviving example of Aksaray inner-city inns was the Çorakçı Han, which gained importance in terms of showing the inner-city commercial life of its period.