Dervish Pasha mansion was built in early 19th century. Dervish Pasha was the name of its owner. The mansion consists of two floors. The first one is built of stone, and the second one of mud bricks. The main room which extends towards the street has a timber skeleton with stone infill. The L-shaped mansion has a spatious inner courtayrd. The first floor rooms open to galleries surrounding the inner garden. The first floor was used as a store, while the second store was the main residential part of the mansion.

For a long time the mansion was badly used and never repaired. In 1978 a part of it was nationalized. Restoration by the Department of Antiquities was completed in 1988 with financial help from the Republic of Turkey. Initial plans for using the mansion as a library or cultural centre, or as the idea of transforming it into the main Department of Antiquities building was later abandoned, it was turned into an Ethnographic museum. Therefore, the mansion has been arranged like a typical museum-house" and opened to public as the Ethnographic museum in 1988.

Source: Aga Khan Trust for Culture