Kültür Araştırmaları Dergisi

Öz

Gravestones are cultural assets in which the value given to them
increases with the better understanding of the cultural elements they reflect.
Tombstones are the heritage that creates evidence for the existence of a
culture in a geographical region and preserves very important information for a
long time, such as artistic perspective and ethnography of the period, the
attitudes of the cultures towards death 
and beliefs after death. In Ahlat, which has the title of Kubbet-ül
Islam, there are six qualified cemeteries spread over large areas. The Ahlat
Tombstones in these cemeteries contain early period evidence of the Turkish
presence in Anatolia. In this study, the cultural heritage of “the Tombstones of Ahlat the Urartian and
Ottoman citadel”, which was registered in the Turkey UNESCO Tentative
List in 2000, was compared with equivalent heritages in UNESCO tentative lists
of other state parties and in UNESCO World Heritage List. Among the cultural
heritages, only the heritage sites, where the gravestones of qualified
tombstones meet outstanding universal
value conditions, have been chosen. Mausoleums, complex structures with
single cemeteries and memorial tombs are not included in the study. As a
result, it has been determined that Ahlat Tombstones are closer to the heritage
sites in the World Heritage List than other heritage sites in the tentative
lists.