Ahlat - Tombs

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a stalactitic frieze and inscribed band.

The angled roof of the Emir Ali Kümbeti, a tomb with a rather heavy-looking base beside a path to the west of the Iki Türbe, rests on a low, ruff-like collar of masonry above pointed arches.

On the eastern edge of the most ancient of Ahlat's rural settlements, north of the track leading into the Old Town, two more tombs stand close together by the roadside. One, 14m/46ft high, originally built in 1279 for Hasan Takin, was used for a second time in 1729 by Hasan Timor. The other, 12m/39ft high, was constructed in 1281 for the Emir Bugatay Aga, whose wife Sirin Hatun was also interred there.

A vast cemetery with a multitude of impressive tombs with mihrabs, most dating from the 17th and 18th centuries, extends northwest of the Old Town. Each tomb bears rich ornamentation showing Armenian influence. Some of the red tuff sarcophagi on the west side of the cemetery, with prism lids and no gravestones, are said to date from the 12th century; others, of gray tuff with pointed lids, in the northeast section of the grounds, also go back to the 11th/12th century A number of the tombs with upright gravestones date from the 12th to 16th centuries.