Guide
Ahlat, on the northwestern shore of Lake Van, is a town of tomb towers, and the Hasan Padişah Kümbet is the second largest of them after the Ulu Kümbet. It was built in the later thirteenth century for Hasan Aka, ruler of Ahlat, and holds three graves. It stands at the southern end of the Tahtisuleyman quarter, northeast of the Karaseyh cemetery, and it is in good condition — it gathers the features common to the Ahlat tomb towers into one of the most imposing examples in the district.
The form is a cylindrical body on a square base, domed on the inside and covered outside by a conical cap. The burial chamber below is entered from the eastern side of the base, down nine steps and through a small pointed-arch door; it is covered by a mirror vault and lit by narrow slit windows set in the middle of its east, west and south sides. The carving is concentrated around the door and window niches. Two twisted colonnettes frame the corners of the door niche, and the muqarnas stepping inward above it is filled edge to edge with stylised plant motifs, leaving almost no plain surface. The building inscriptions are set beside those colonnettes and in the panel above the hood. Immediately next to it stands a second, half-finished tomb tower; its style suggests the thirteenth century, but who it was for and when it was begun are not known.
