AZİZİYE THERMAL FACILITIES FROM HISTORY TO TODAY

   Erzurum is rich for its hot water resources. The most well-known of them are the Ilıca in the west and Hasankale hot spring that is just south of the fortress in the east. The most popular one among the people in Erzurum is Aziziye (Ilıca) because it is near the city centre and just on the road. According to the Byzantium and Armenian sources, Elegeia was on the west of the city of Theodosiopolis in Karin plain. Albeit simple, some buildings were constructed on some of the hot water sources and thus the local community were enabled to benefit from them. During the invasion of the plain by İbrahim Yinal and Kutalmış from the Seljuks, Ilıca was also invaded. Up to that time, the population of the villages near Pulur (Ömertepe) and Artzeliler (Kahramanlar) and sometimes and   Theodosiopolis inhabitants benefited from this hot water source for the purposes of health.

   During the reign of Saltuklu, this source was utilized as a bath in the first Islamic construction. When the Mongols invaded Erzurum under the lead of Baycu Noyan, an interesting event took place. Before the siege began, some of the inhabitants of Erzurum were in Ilıca. These all were gathered together and sent to Mugan as exiles irrespective of whether they are women or children. Black Sheep Turkomans and White Sheep Turkomans attached importance to the thermals. Cleaning needs of their soldiers were fulfilled in the thermals. The first Ottoman Sultan to honour Ilıca was Yavuz Sultan Selim. When he accommodated in Ilıca, the Ottoman troops benefited from the bath. Defeating Şah ismail, he honoured Ilıca on the way back, too. Also Suleiman the magnificent accommodated in Ilıca back from Iran in 1555. Bayram cleaning was performed in Ilıca.

   A nice introduction of Ilıca in XVI. century was drawn up by Matrakçı Nasuh as a miniature. Here, the Ilıca building was depicted simple. One of the writers and bureaucrats of again XVI. century, Aşık Ahmet, mentions Ilıca, Erzurum in his work Menâzirü’l-Avâlim. The temperature of these hot springs which are in the west of the city is quite moderate. Its building is stated by the writer to have been constructed by a philanthropist. There was also a pool within the bath. Evliya Çelebi went past Ilıca during his Erzurum travel of 1645. Evliya Çelebi also records without indicating any source that the hot spring was constructed by one of the sultans of White Sheep Turkomans. According to the information obtained from the annals of Erzurum it had to be repaired from time to time. One of them was built by Cennetzade Ziya Bey on behalf of Kurd İsmail Pasha. Troops on the way to the expedition had their cleaning well in here. Ilıca served considerably during the big world and in the prevention of some diseases. When the typhus prevailed extensively, Ilıca was one of the places where the people healed from the infestation of louse.