A GRAVEYARD OF MONUMENTAL DIMENSIONS
Ahlat is an ancient city in eastern Anatolia famous for one of the most important cultural heritage sites in Turkey: A large Islamic cemetery
Located on the shore of the picturesque Lake Van at an altitude of around 1,600 metres above sea level, Ahlat is a historic town in Turkey’s eastern Anatolia region relatively close to the Iranian border. It is known worldwide for its Islamic cemetery, which is widely acknowledged as being one of the largest mausoleums in the Muslim world, or, as some say, the biggest open-air gravestone museum in Turkey today.
The cemetery contains around 8,000 tombstones unique in their dimensions and designs, as well as crypt covers of various typologies dating as far back as the 11th century. The huge graveyard is arranged around an Ottoman citadel, and both are aspirants to qualify for inclusion in the Unesco World Heritage List.
While the cemetery’s tombstones are mainly decorated with Seljuk-era ornamentation techniques, some of them are believed to have Armenian, Kurdish, Iranian and even Mongolian characteristics. They are fine examples of the craftsmanship of their respective eras and are admired for their monumental size and complex decors.
There are six larger ancient burial grounds and some small cemeteries in Ahlat that are the reminders of a turbulent historical past and a glorious cultural heritage. The main cemeteries of historical importance are Harabe şehir cemetery (The Ruined City), Tahtı Süleyman cemetery (Solomon’s Throne cemetery), Kırklar cemetery (Forties cemetery), Kale cemetery (Castle cemetery), Merkez cemetery (Central cemetery) and Meydanlık cemetery (Square cemetery), all referred to as the “the city of ancestors” by the Ottomans, although only the Castle cemetery has Ottoman tombstones. More than 1,000 of the tombstones have very large dimensions of up to four metres in height and beautiful decorations with inscriptions in rectangular shapes on each side, with each inscription being unique and considered as historic documents by archaeologists. The largest cemetery is Square cemetery, located on a large hill and comprising about 1,000 Seljuk gravestones in various sizes and from different eras from between the 12th and the 15th centuries. There could be even more gravestones since some fields very close to this cemetery have not been excavated yet.
Solomon’s Throne cemetery is attributed to Prophet Solomon and has gravestones dating back to 15th century with unique inscriptions. Forties cemetery, for its part, does not only house smaller gravestones, but also a number of column-shaped sarcophaguses and tomb steles, socalled balbals, decorated with human faces. The Central cemetery is interesting for its domed shrines, called “kümbet” in Turkish and dating back to the 14th century, while The Ruined City cemetery is located in the centre of Ahlat’s old town near the Seljuk castle.
Even though the known cemetery complex with its approximately 6,200 grave sites has been largely explored, geophysical teams are still excavating artefacts and finding underground graveyard ruins. They also found that the complex was originally surrounded by walls and seems to be larger than anticipated, which means the real number of gravesites is yet to be determined.