Tombstones of Ahlat
Tombstones of Ahlat
Details
Established	1200
Location	Ahlat, Bitlis, Turkey
Country	Turkey
Coordinates	38°44′35″N 42°27′29″E / 38.74306°N 42.45806°E / 38.74306; 42.45806
Type	Civil Cemetery
No. of graves	8200
The Political Graveyard	Open-air museum

The Tombstones of Ahlat, is the world's largest Turkish-Islamic cemetery in the Middle Ages, located in the Ahlat district of Bitlis in Turkey. The cemetery is an open-air museum today.

Ahlat is a district center in Bitlis Province at the Lake Van shore. The tombstones are in and around the citadel of Ahlat at about 38°45′N 42°30′E / 38.750°N 42.500°E / 38.750; 42.500.^[1]

The history of the city dates back to 900 BC, the Urartu era^[2] but the tombstones are from the medieval age. Although the tombstones are known as Seljukid era, according to the governorship of Ahlat they belong to the era of the Shah-Armens, Ayyubid dynasty, the Mongol and the Safavid eras.^[3] These periods correspond to the 12th-15th centuries. The most important tombstones are in the cemeteries known as Harabe şehir cemetery, Taht'ı Suleyman cemetery, Kırklar cemetery, Kale cemetery, Merkez cemetery and Meydanlık cemetery. Among these, only the Kale cemetery has Ottoman tombs .^[4]

World Heritage Status

This site was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List on February 25, 2000, in the Cultural category.^[2]

References