The story of The Tombstones of Ahlat the Urartian and Ottoman citadel

Some 8,200 gravestones rise from this ground in Ahlat, and some of them reach 3.5 metres in height. The Ahlat Seljuk Cemetery is described as the world's largest medieval Turkish-Islamic cemetery; covering 210 decares, it is now an open-air museum on UNESCO's World Heritage Tentative List. Its history reaches back 1000 years, and it existed even before the Marwanids.

Armenians, Saltukids, Ahlatshahs, Ayyubids, Seljuks and finally Ottomans were buried here one layer over another, and Christian and Yazidi graves have been found alongside Muslim ones. Look closely at the tall, rectangular headstones: every face is decorated with dragons, palmettes, lamps and geometric patterns from Central Asian Turkish culture. Some graves are chambers dug underground, resembling Central Asian Turkish tombs.

Restoration began in 2010, and the inscriptions of 700 stones have been deciphered so far; 118 of the stones count as monuments.