Aydinlar Attractions

About 6km/4mi northeast of Siirt lies the little mountain town of Aydinlar ("The Enlightened"; formerly Tillo). In the 18th century it was the home of the astronomer and sage Ibrahim Hakki whose mausoleum (the Ibrahim Hakki Türbesi) adorns the town. The scholar came from a village east of Erzurum, having been brought to Tillo by his father as a child to study under a Fakir Ullah. Teacher and pupil endured years of privation before, with the aid of only home-made instruments, Ibrahim Hakki succeeded in measuring the precise distance between the Earth and the Moon. His "astrolabium" and other instruments can be seen in a local museum.