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Just south of the river stand two relics of Turkish rule. The Turkish baths near pl. Hebros were allowed to rot for decades but are currently being restored, very slowly: it is unlikely they will reopen for business any time soon. Plovdiv's Muslim community has already repaired and reopened the Imaret dzhamiya , on ul. Han Krubat (daily from noon for prayers), whose prayer hall contains honeycomb squinches, traces of Arabesque frescos, and the tomb of Gazi Shahabedin Pasha. The mosque was built on Sultan Bajazet's orders in 1444, and got its name from the pilgrims' hostel ( imaret ) that once stood nearby. Zigzag brickwork gives the minaret a corkscrew twist, jazzing up the ponderous, red-brick bulk of the building, which a frieze of "sawtoothed" bricks and a row of keel arches with tie beams fails to do. Further west, on pl. Saedinenie, the Historical Museum (closed for major repairs at the time of writing) houses the usual display of photographs and documents chronicling the Liberation, and occupies half of a crumbling building shared by the Archeological Museum (Mon-Fri 9am-12.30pm & 1-5.30pm; US$1), much of whose collection remains in storage while it also awaits renovation. Only two rooms are open at present, the first containing an assemblage of Thracian and Roman finds, including a replica of the gold Panagyurishte treasure contained in the National History Museum in Sofia. There's also a small but fascinating display illustrating the various pagan cults practised in the region, including a votive plaque from the second century AD, dedicated to the Persian god Mithras and showing a Tauroctony or bull-slaying, the central image of this "mystery cult" which claimed devotees across the entire Roman Empire. Also on show is a terracotta sacrificial krater adorned with an image of the Graeco-Egyptian deity Serapis, and a curious stela depicting a three-headed Thracian Rider. Another prize exhibit is a fine Attic vase from the fourth century BC, decorated with a naked miner at work with a pick-axe, discovered in a tumulus at Brezovo, just outside Plovdiv. The second room houses a less interesting collection of ecclesiastical knick-knackery, including medieval crosses, miniature icons, an elaborate eighteenth-century bishop's mitre and crosier, and nineteenth-century church plate.
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