Ahlat
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- Ahlat
Ahlat is a district of Bitlis provision and has been located 1750 m elevation from the sea on East Anatolian Region.
Since there has not been any certain research its foundation date has not exactly been known. However, as the results of archeological excavations scarried out in the Yuvadami region which 15 km away from Ahlat many findings have been brought to light which are dated to bronze and iron ages in between, 3000 and 1200 B. C. However, all these studies could not inform of exactly about the foundation date of Ahlat.
It is known that Ahlat had been taken under control by Asurs, Urartus, Persians, Macedonians, Romans, the Byzantines, Seljuk Turks and the Ottomans in sequence. The town is known as the first settlement of Seljuk Turks which had entered Anatolia in 1054. Athough there are some different stories about the origin of Ahlat name, it had been called as Khat, Hilat and Ahlat in the periods of Armanians, Suryanians, Iranians, Arabians and Turks.
As against to these, many historians have claimed that Ahlat name has come from the wold ‘Halatun’ means ‘mixed society’ in Arabic. In East Anatolia, this town has been blended with various kinds of cultural values and so it is like an open – area museum. Domestic and foreign , tourists coming here visit the wonderful buildings such as bridge, grove, dome, mosque, palace which have been constructed with the famous yellow stones of the region by the consecutives of the famous Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan.
