The tomb tower of Halime Hatun stands on the eastern side of the historic Islamic cemetery of Gevaş, the second largest Turkish Islamic cemetery of the medieval period in Anatolia, and is one of the emblems of the region. The cemetery lies at Hiset in the Karşıyaka quarter and is registered as a first-degree archaeological site. The inscription above the tomb's door records that it was built in 1335 by Melik İzzeddin Şir — thought to be the founder of the Hakkâri principality — for his daughter Halime Hatun. Its builder, Esed son of Pehlivan of Ahlat, is also named on the building.
In plan the tomb repeats the tombs of Ahlat, and it has two levels. The burial chamber below is square and reached down a stair to its door on the east. Above a square base with chamfered corners rises a twelve-sided body under a pointed cap, and the whole is built of neatly cut white limestone.
A portal opens in the north face of the body and windows in the other three, with triangular niches enlivening the surfaces between them. The ornament concentrated on the outer faces is the tomb's most important feature: plants, geometry and writing, set out in bands and in medallions, and a band running around the tomb carries verses one to thirteen of the sura al-Fath from the Qur'an, written in celî sülüs script. Inside there is no decoration apart from the small scallop-fluted cells at the corners that make the transition from the twelve-sided body to the dome.
The directorate general of foundations restored the tomb between 2014 and 2018. A four-storey student hostel had been built immediately behind it in 2007; after photographs of it circulated on social media in 2014 it drew public objection for damaging the historic setting, the district governorship of Gevaş applied to the Ministry of Education in 2015 for its demolition, and it was pulled down in 2022.
Minibuses and public buses towards Gevaş and Akdamar leave from the Van intercity bus station.
When to go
- Climate
- Across Van as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from -3 °C in January to 22.4 °C in July; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in June, July, August and September; rainfall is heaviest in April (55 mm) and lightest in August (6 mm). Long-term means for 1939-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
Getting there
- Access
- Gevaş-Akdamar minibuses and public buses leave from Van's intercity bus station.
