The 1525 Kurşunlu Complex (Külliyesi) and the World's Only Meerschaum Museum

At the top of the historic Odunpazarı hill (a 4-minute walk uphill from OMM along Şamlılar Sokak) stands the finest classical Ottoman monument in Eskişehir: the Kurşunlu Complex (Kurşunlu Camii ve Külliyesi). Commissioned in 1517 and completed in 1525 by Çoban Mustafa Pasha, a vizier and brother-in-law of Sultan Selim I and Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, and designed most likely by the royal Ottoman chief architect Acem Ali (the predecessor of Mimar Sinan), the complex takes its name ("The Leaded Complex") from the grey sheets of lead covering all its domes. Built as a complete Silk Road charitable foundation comprising a mosque, fountain, theological school (medrese), soup kitchen, caravanserai and Mevlevi dervish lodge, its tranquil cypress-and-rose courtyard is completely free to walk into.

1. The World's Only Meerschaum Museum (Lületaşı Müzesi, Inside the Madrasa Cells)

Housed inside the domed student rooms of the 1525 medrese (free admission) is the only museum in the world dedicated to Meerschaum (Lületaşı, known in German as "Sea Foam" and in French as Écume de mer):

• What is Eskişehir Meerschaum ("White Gold")? found almost exclusively in the deep alluvial clay beds around Eskişehir (at Sepetçi, Margı and Sarısu, mined from narrow shafts 40 to 150 metres underground), lületaşı is a hydrous magnesium silicate mineral that is soft and moist like cheese when first pulled from the damp earth, allowing master carvers to sculpt microscopic beards, ships, dragons and lace with a pocketknife. Once exposed to air and polished with beeswax, it hardens and becomes so light and porous that it actually floats on water.
• What to See Inside: over 400 masterworks carved by 60 master artisans since the 19th century, including metre-long ceremonial pipes, chess sets and intricate tobacco pieces that slowly turn from snow-white to deep golden amber as they are smoked over years.

2. The Hot Glassblowing Workshop, Mevlevihane & Osman Yaşar Tanaçan Photography Museum

Across the courtyard inside the domed former Harem and Kitchen buildings, step into the Hot Glass Workshop (Sıcak Cam Üfleme Atölyesi) to watch artisans spinning molten 1,200°C glass on blowpipes, view the octagonal Mevlevi Semahane (Whirling Dervish Hall), and visit the adjacent Osman Yaşar Tanaçan Photography Museum displaying ratusan of antique bellows cameras and darkroom equipment.