The İskender Paşa Mosque stands within the old castle of Ahlat in Bitlis. According to its inscription, Çerkes İskender Paşa, the first governor-general of the province of Van, had the mosque that carries his name built inside the Ottoman castle at Ahlat in 1564–65. The bath beside the mosque has now fallen.
The castle of Ahlat, in which the mosque stands, was built in the reign of Selim I and enlarged under Süleyman the Magnificent.
The mosque forms a rectangle of 20.75 by 16.27 metres in all. The prayer hall proper measures 13.05 by 12.83 metres and is covered by a single dome. The minaret at the north-west corner, 3.18 metres square, has a square base and rises as a cylinder.
The mosque belongs to the General Directorate of Foundations and was last repaired in 2005 by the Bitlis regional directorate of foundations, after which it was opened to visitors.
When to go
- Climate
- Across Bitlis as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from -4.2 °C in January to 23.1 °C in August; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in June, July, August and September; rainfall is heaviest in March (196 mm) and lightest in August (7 mm). Long-term means for 2011-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
