Ahlat, Turkey Tourism

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some of them spectacular, are found everywhere. The area was very probably settled by about 900 B.C. by the Urartians. The Parthians then established a capital here, known as Hilyat in Roman sources and later as Chlat or Kelath to the Armenians. The Arabs called the town the Muslim enclave of the Kassite emirs of Malazgirt within otherwise Christian Armenia when they conquered it in the seventh century

Under Sökman Arman, emir of the Azerbaijan ruler Kudbeddin Ismail, Ahlat became from about 1100 until 1207 capital of the principality of Armanshahlar, its power soon extending as far as Mus and Khoy. The title "Shah i-Arman" was then adopted by the Kurdish Ayyubids who arrived on the scene in 1209. Evliya Çelebi records that an earthquake in the 13th century resulted in some 12,000 of the 300,000 inhabitants of the city emigrating to Egypt. Under Süleiman the Magnificent renewed building took place to the north of the site of the old village of Erkizan.