Manisa Travel Guide, Turkey

1. Museum of Medical History

In Turkish it's called Manisa Celal Bayar Üniversitesi Ayșe Hafsa Sultan Tıp Tarihi Müzesi.

This lesser-known museum is run by the Manisa State University and is named after Ayșe Hafsa Sultan. Come on, I've explained the long Turkish name pretty well.

It can be visited daily free of charge between 9 am - 5 pm at Mimar Sinan, 25023, Sk. No. 1, 45010 Sehzadeler / Manisa

You can get here by following the city's old shopping street, a one-way main thoroughfare called Izmir Cd., until you reach the city's largest mosque, where there is a small park and this museum.

The museum has an eye-catching architecture with a brick wall interspersed with large pieces of stone. Above the tiled roof of this mini-fortress-like wall is an inner courtyard with a fountain, a few tables and several rooms arranged along the wall, covered in turn with tiles, but with individual hexagonal roofs, raised high above the wall.

The history of Manisa tells that Pasta Mesir has been celebrated here annually for almost 5 centuries, one of the longest-lived celebrations that have survived in time until today. Ayse Hafsa Sultan (15th century), the mother of Suleiman the Magnificent, settled in Manisa after her son became prince (I don't know if I'm translating the rank correctly). She made great contributions to the life of the city and its inhabitants. Thus were built the Mosque and the whole adjacent complex including the school, the hamam, the splital and others, completed by Suleiman after the death of his mother. The hospital was a place of treatment for men and women, for rich and poor, for Muslims and other ethnic groups. The hospital was a well-equipped and well-equipped hospital for those times, with Ayse Hafsa himself having an important function, according to the chief physician.

This is where the famous Mesir Pastaa kind of Manisa trademark. The physician Merkez Efendi (16th century) "invented" it by crushing and mixing 41 medicinal herbs such as cinnamon, pepper, cloves, caraway, cumin, etc. The miraculous paste, accompanied by prayers, was successful and the sultan ordered it to be distributed to the masses. MESIR PASTE was used to strengthen the immune system and was administered during the cold season.

Hafsa Sultan Hospital was a multi-purpose hospital that treated diseases, epidemics, wounds. Due to the reduction of its financial resources in the 20th century, it restricted its activity to treating the mentally ill and the poor, and it is still known as such today.

Today's museum leads you through several rooms, each one presenting a "medical theme" and displaying medical instruments used in past centuries. A small museum, which I enjoyed, it takes 15 - 45 minutes to visit. Too bad it doesn't have a guide or a presentation on headphones.

2. Sultan Parki

The Museum of Medical History, previously shown, is actually located in the parking lot next to the much better known Sultan Mosque.

The park is called Sultan Parki, is permanently open to the public free of charge and is located at Mimar Sinan, 45010 Sehzadeler / Manisa, Turkey

It is a small park, with a few alleys, which cross it diagonally or in other directions. It has a few benches, but I have to say that I found it dirty and unwelcoming for a rest stop. It's more of a throughway with more greenery than a busy asphalt street. The paths are paved with stone. The park is planted with dwarf and taller palm trees, but also with trees I can't identify. One of them had both flowers and fruit.

By the way, and about the lack of cleanliness, in Manisa you will see a lot of dogs and cats on the streets. They are in general animals taken care of by the owners of the houses in front of which they stand in the street, either private individuals or shops, firms, laundries. It reminded me for a moment of the dogs on the streets of Bucharest, but I quickly realized that they are not stray.

3. Sultan Mosque (Sultan Camii)

Sultan Camiiin Turkish, or Sultan Mosque, in English, is in fact the only tourist objective I found from several sources of information.

The mosque is permanently open, it can be visited without entrance fee, but with respect of the descalation rule, which you know from other similar religious buildings. The Sultan Mosque is part of a religious complex. It was built in the 16th century by Hafsa Sultan, wife of Sultan Selim I and mother of Suleiman the Magnificent. The complex comprises the mosque, madrasa, hospital, school, Turkish bath. The entrance to the mosque courtyard is from the side through an arched gate in the wall.

In front of the mosque the famous taps where you can wash your feet. From the front it has five arches on pillars that cover a half-open space like a large porch.

Very spacious inside and lighted with a large chandelier quite low, that is hanging about 3 meters above the floor although the height of the mosque is considerable, about 15 - 20 meters, I appreciate. On one side of the room I admired an old pendulum. It has one floor and a staircase leading up to it, now blocked, probably the place where women used to have access. The main body of the mosque is somewhat square and flanked by two minarets.

Address: Mimar Sinan, Izmir Cd. No. 38, 45010 Manisa Merkez

4. Ataturk Kent Parki

The address of the park is: Atatuerk Kent Park, Guezelyurt, 45030 Manisa Merkez / Manisa. The park is located on both sides of Suermen Cd, continuing 19 Mayis Blvd.

The park has an advertisement with the name of the park on each of the sidewalks at each of the two entrances from the boulevard, with letters as long as the fence. The two semi-parks have flower names - Magnolia and Tulip. Both sides of the park are crisscrossed by a man-made parapet which at the ends of the artificial embankment acts as a lake. The embankment is landscaped, cut with large river stones, and on both banks there are paths. Several bridges cross from one side of the river to the other. The creek is simply overrun with ducks, geese and other birds of the same kind, let's call them distant cousins. They frolic, play and come out of the water into the alleyways waiting for food from passers-by. There were flowers, too. In the foreground were roses. The playgrounds are divided into age groups. I was struck by a chair that acted as a zip-line, but it started from a very high mast where the brave 11-year-olds had to climb up for the thrill of the ride down.

I also saw many busts of personalities and the boards presenting them. They were Turkish figures who lived in different centuries, but I can't say much about them, as I didn't understand what was written on the explanatory panels in Turkish. I appreciated the cleanliness of the park and noticed that it was full of lighting systems. That's why I regret that I didn't visit it very late in the evening, when I think it would have been even more lively, but especially multi-lit, as I saw it later in the pictures.