Astronomy museum to take Anatolian province to stars

KIRŞEHİR - Anadolu Agency

The Cacabey Madrasah will become the Open Air Astronomy Museum. AA photo

The Central Anatolian province of Kırşehir will soon be home to an astronomy museum sited on an ancient madrasah built over 700 years ago.

Kırşehir Mayor Yaşar Bahçeci said the Cacabey Madrasah was one of the most important tourist sites in the city and that the Open Air Astronomy Museum would be established as part of a project to rearrange Cacabey Square.

“The Cacabey Madrasah is one of the important structures in the country. Our ancestors established an astronomical university in 1272 in the Seljuk era to observe space. We have arranged the square here and the museum is a part of it.”

Bahçeci said the madrasah, which served as a mosque, would display the prototypes of tools used in that era.

“We will display 20 tools invented and used by scientists from the Turkish Islamic civilization. All these objects are in the Turkish and Islamic Civilizations Museum in Istanbul’s Gülhane. We have 20 of them. They will have Turkish, English and Japanese explanations,” he said, adding that the works of nearly 800 years would be shown in the museum.

Preparations for the museum are set to be finished by the end of the year.

January/30/2014