Kırtık Cemetery, Şehzadeler, Manisa

Today: Hours not recorded
Visit duration: 20 min
Accessibility: Not recorded
Price: Not recorded
Standing: High
Rank: Rank 65 of 577

What it is

Kırtık Mezarlığı is the largest cemetery in Manisa, a Muslim civil burial ground of 333,000 m² in Şehzadeler, still in use. It is also known as Kırtık Asri Mezarlığı or the Manisa Municipality Asri Cemetery.

The name carries a story about the founding of Turkish Manisa. By local account Kırtık comes from Saruhan Bey's entry into the city from the east, the word meaning defeated enemy — the same Saruhan Bey whose tomb of 1345 stands a couple of kilometres west.

A shrine to Kırtık Dede, also called Adilşah, stands in the same area.

Checked 2026-08-23 · Source

What's inside

A working municipal cemetery of 333,000 square metres, which is a third of a square kilometre of graves.

It is not a monument and it is not laid out for visitors. What it holds is the city's dead, including people Manisa remembers by name: the politician and pharmacist Cemil Çöllü (1945–1979), the sports coach Tevfik Lav (1959–2004), the former mayor and architect Adil Aygül (1949–2017), and the politician Hilmi Okçu (1926–2016).

The shrine of Kırtık Dede, also known as Adilşah, is in the same area and is the older focus of the site.

No founding date and no heritage designation are recorded in the sources this page uses.

Checked 2026-08-23 · Source

How long to spend

Twenty minutes, and only if you have a reason.

This is a functioning cemetery rather than a sight. Turkish visitors come to particular graves; a foreign visitor without one has little to do here beyond seeing the scale of the place and the shrine.

It is on the eastern side of Şehzadeler, away from the mosque cluster, so it does not fold into the historic-quarter walk. Treat it as a separate short stop or leave it out.

Checked 2026-08-23

Season and crowds

Daylight, on an ordinary day.

Religious holidays — particularly the mornings of the two bayrams — are when Turkish families visit their graves, and the cemetery is full and private then. That is precisely the wrong time for a visitor with no connection to anyone buried here.

The ground is open with little shade across 333,000 m², so the middle of a summer afternoon is not the hour.

Checked 2026-08-23

Tickets

Free, and not ticketed in any sense. A municipal cemetery is a public burial ground, not an attraction with an entrance.

There is no visitor centre, no guide and no map of notable graves published on the sources this page uses. Facilities are those of a working cemetery — a water point for washing, and little else.

Nothing here is for sale and nothing is charged for.

Checked 2026-08-23 · Source

Getting there

In Şehzadeler, on the eastern side of the district, away from the Ottoman core.

It is too far from the mosque cluster to fold into that walk. A town bus toward the east of the district or a taxi from the centre is the practical approach.

Reaching Manisa: four trains a day from İzmir Basmane take about 90 minutes, local buses cover the 40 km in about 35 minutes, and İzmir Adnan Menderes airport is roughly 65 km away.

Checked 2026-08-23 · Source

What to watch out for

This is a burial ground in daily use, and the single thing to get right is behaving like it.

Quiet voices, no eating or drinking among the graves, nothing walked on, and no photographing of mourners or of funerals. If a family is at a grave, keep away from it.

Modest dress is expected — the same shoulders and knees that a mosque asks for. At the shrine of Kırtık Dede the conventions of a türbe apply: shoes off if you enter, and no photography of people praying.

The two bayram mornings are family occasions here, not sightseeing opportunities.

Practically: 333,000 m² with little shade and no signage in any language but Turkish.

Checked 2026-08-23

Photography

Photograph the place, not the people. Grave markers across a hillside and the shrine building are legitimate subjects; mourners, funerals and individual named graves are not.

No photography restriction is formally recorded for the cemetery in the sources this page uses, which means the restraint has to come from the photographer rather than from a sign.

The scale is what a camera can actually convey — a third of a square kilometre reads from a rise in a way it does not from the path.

Low light early or late; the middle of the day flattens white stone to nothing.

Checked 2026-08-23

Common questions

What is Kırtık Mezarlığı?

The largest cemetery in Manisa — a Muslim civil burial ground of 333,000 m² in Şehzadeler, still in use. It is also called Kırtık Asri Mezarlığı or the Manisa Municipality Asri Cemetery.

Where does the name come from?

By local account from Saruhan Bey's entry into the city from the east, Kırtık meaning defeated enemy. A shrine to Kırtık Dede, also known as Adilşah, stands in the same area.

Is it a tourist site?

No. It is a functioning municipal cemetery, not a monument, and it is not laid out for visitors. Twenty minutes covers it if you go at all.

Who is buried there?

Manisa's dead, including the politician and pharmacist Cemil Çöllü (1945–1979), the coach Tevfik Lav (1959–2004), the former mayor and architect Adil Aygül (1949–2017) and the politician Hilmi Okçu (1926–2016).

How should I behave?

As at any working cemetery: quiet, modestly dressed, away from families at graves, and no photographs of mourners or funerals. Avoid the two bayram mornings, when Turkish families visit their graves.

Is there an entrance fee?

No. A municipal cemetery is a public burial ground with no gate, no ticket and no visitor facilities.