The Hassan Baba Tekke is a former tekke (dervish gathering house), homonymous khanqah operated by the philosophical Bektashi order of Dervishes, in the Tempi Valley, Greece. The Tekke is a large building complex, today largely ruined, near the village of Tempi Larissa, on the bank of the River Pinios.
During Byzantine times, the settlement of Lycostomio was located at this site, but the modern settlement developed around the perimeter of the Tekke. Until the 20th century it was known as “Baba” after the founder of the tekke, Hassan Baba.
After his death, Hassan Baba became known as a miracle worker, and the tekkeh became a place of pilgrimage for believers throughout the Ottoman Empire, especially for women who wished to procreate, as well as children who were unable to walk.
SEPULCHRE OF HASSAN BABA, AT THE ENTRANCE OF THE VALE OF TEMPE
by Edward Dodwell.
THE large and beautiful village of Baba is about twelve miles from Larissa, and probably occupies tbe site of the ancient Elateia, which, according to Livy, 1) was near Gonnos, and the mouth of Tempo.
It is situated in a plain of a circular form at a short distance from the entrance of the Vale of Tempe, and is chequered with the verdant shade of ample platani, of tall cypresses, and of waving pines with large umbrella heads.
Its picturesque charms are heightened by the tapering minarets the swelling domes, and
the diversified forms of the houses. The Sepulchre of Hassan Baba, a Turkish saint, exhibits a most picturesque object. Its white minaret is embosomed in dark cypresses of venerable age, and backed by the lofty mid rugged range of Mount Olympos.
It stands a little without the village, on the road to Tempe, and to Ampelakia. The classical spectator is interested not only by the vivacity of the tints and the elegance of the lines, but by the vicinity of the picturesque Tempe, and the majestic Olympos, replete with poetical and historical associations.
Source: Views in Greece. Drawings by Edward Dodwell. Rod Well and Martin, London, 1821.
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