Turkey's Ahlat to enter UNESCO list

BİTLİS – Doğan News Agency

AA photo

The eastern province of Bitlis’s Ahlat district, home to 8,100 monumental tombstones which are on UNESCO’s tentative list, will enter the World Heritage list in 2017, according to Ahlat Mayor Mümtaz Çoban. 

“Ahlat is a district for faith tourism. We have done some work to recover the historical heritage. Ahlat is also home to one of Turkey’s largest excavation fields. It is a travel route and a popular destination. We started working in the Seljuk graveyard, the center of this heritage site. We restored the tombstones and a new museum and a reception center has been built. Then the environmental arrangement was finished,” Çoban said. 

“The restoration of the domes was carried out in collaboration with the Culture and Tourism Ministry. Ahlat is currently on UNESCO’s World Heritage tentative list, but it will move to the main list. Works of art by Ahlat’s local masters have previously entered the list,” said the mayor.