I visited this tWHS in Spring 2021 as a side trip from Van Lake, 42 km from Tatvan. The several ornately carved Tombstones of Ahlat were a very pleasant surprise. There are wooden boardwalks you can walk on which make it easier to visit and appreciate the different groups of tombstones and a quaint museum nearby.

The history of the city of Ahlat dates back to 900 BC, the Urartu era, but the tombstones are mostly from the medieval age, that is the 12th to 15th centuries. The city was left to Turkish rule by the local Byzantine governor in 1055. It was later used as a forward station by Alp Arslan forces during his successful military campaign against Byzantine Emperor Remenos Deogenes for the Seljuk control of Eastern Anatolia in 1071. The city was later seriously destroyed once during a capture by Celaleddin Harzemsah in 1229 and shortly after by a major earthquake. There are at least six ancient burial grounds in Ahlat that are the reminders of a long historical past and a glorious cultural heritage. The most important tombstones are in the cemeteries known as Harabe şehir cemetery, Taht'ı Suleyman cemetery, Kırklar cemetery, Kale cemetery, Merkez cemetery and Meydanlık cemetery. Among these, only the Kale cemetery has Ottoman tombs. The Ahlat graveyards were used by both the Seljuks and the Ottomans.

In all there are more than 8,000 graves (some still unexcavated), 1,500 of which are in perfect condition. The vast majority of the tombstones vary in height and are made of red tuff stone. On the vertical part of the tombstones are Rumi motifs, inscriptions, mihrab and Koranic verses as wells as hadiths. Engraved with intricate geometric patterns, bands of Kufic lettering and floral motifs, Ahlat's historic cemeteries are the largest Turkish-Islamic cemeteries and the third-largest Muslim cemetery complex in the world. The largest and most ornate vertical tombstones are engraved from both sides and are found in the main Meydanlik area, where there are also two lovely gonbads (Persian style domes). Ahlat was also a city of artisans and architects. The domed Seljuk mausoleums (kümbet or gonbad) and the shapes of the columns of the Orkhon Monuments, the oldest inscriptions in the Turkish language, were brought to Anatolia from Central Asia, producing their finest examples at Ahlat. 

The Tombstones of Ahlat and citadel are unique and in quite a very good condition of preservation, especially since most of the tombstones have been recently cleaned from the different species of grey, green and orange lichens and fungi. In my opinion their OUV is evident and would fit well on the list to cover the Urartian period much more than the nearby Van Fortress and I hope they make it on the list in 2023.