Emin Baba Sufi Lodge

The site history of the structure dates back to 1761, when Derviş Mehmed erected a prayer stone (namazgah taşı) and established a water well.
The initial construction of the present lodge dates to the reign of Sultan Mahmud II (1866–1867).
The current building was commissioned in 1867 by Pertevniyal Valide Sultan, the mother of Sultan Abdülaziz.
The restoration of the lodge was completed in 1997 under the mayoralty of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, then Mayor of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality.

Today, the building is used by the Türkiye Gönüllü Teşekkürler Vakfı (Turkish Voluntary Organizations Foundation) and is also known as Valide Sultan Tekkesi and Kuyubaşı Tekkesi.
The lodge has a rectangular massing; its walls are masonry, and it is covered with a wooden roof. The semahane is positioned opposite the entrance axis, and a mihrab is located on the front wall of the semahane.
On the right side of the building, there is a mirrored fountain (aynalı çeşme), above whose stone panel is placed the tughra of Sultan Abdülaziz.
Emin Baba, about whose life very little is known, was one of the prominent Bektashi leaders who earned the great respect of Sultan Abdülaziz and his mother, Pertevniyal Valide Sultan.
The hazire contains the grave of Emin Baba; the tombstone preserves a relief of the Bektashi crown (taj), the teslim stone, and its inscription.