Hexagonal Tile Ensemble with Sphinx ca. 1160s-70s By the early twentieth century, the two-story Konya Köşk had largely fallen into ruin, but architectural fragments speak to its former artistic sophistication and lavish polychrome ornamentation. The upper story of this Rum Seljuq citadel-palace” was dominated by an iwan with balconies on three sides facing outward over the sultanate’s capital, Konya, thereby functioning as both a belvedere and a point from which the sultan could consider his dominion. The luxurious mina˒i ceramic technique of these tiles is reminiscent of that associated with the luxury vessels made in Kashan, Iran. The stucco reliefs also recall the artistic language developing both in the eastern and western parts of the Seljuq realm, which eventually extended into Christian lands, as seen in comparable stucco reliefs found at the Armenian capital at Ani. The imagery of real and fantastic animals, such as this sphinx (1976.245), and scenes of equestrian combat or ro