The twin tomb towers stand outside the walls of old Van, southwest of the Kaya Çelebi Mosque, within the Orta Kapı cemetery. Who lies in them is disputed. The older view is that one belongs to Teymur Pasha, governor-general of Van, who died in 1789, and the other to his brother Ahmet Pasha, who died in 1796. After repairs carried out by the General Directorate of Foundations in 1992, however, a sign was put up stating that the southern tomb belongs to Timuroglu Derviş Mehmed Pasha and the northern one to the governor-general Mehmed Emin Pasha, and that they were built in the eighteenth century. The towers carry no inscriptions, so the year they were built is not known.
Both are built in the baldachin manner on eight columns. The columns rest on an octagonal base and are linked to one another by pointed arches, and each tower is covered by a pyramidal cap resting on those arches. The floors are paved with stone, and there are no cenotaphs.
Getting there
- Access
- The tombs stand outside the walls of old Van, southwest of the Kaya Çelebi Mosque, inside the Orta Kapı cemetery.
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).
