Kiğı ( ku, Gêxî, hy, Քղի, translit=Kʿġi) is a town and district of
Bingöl Province
Bingöl Province ( tr, , lit=province of a thousand lakes, '' ku, Parêzgeha Çewlîg'', ) is a province of Turkey in Eastern Anatolia. The province was known as Çapakçur Province (from ) until 1945 when it was renamed as Bingöl province. Its ...
in the
Eastern Anatolia region of
Turkey. The mayor is Hikmet Özüağ (
AKP). The district has a population of 3,188 out of which 1,604 live in the town of Kiğı.
History
Historically this area was ruled by different Armenian, Byzantine, Kurdish and Turkic dynasties. During the Middle Ages, Kiğı had been a
mint town of the
Ilkhanids The town became a part of the
Ottoman Empire was a
sanjak of the
Erzurum Eyalet. Historically a nearby iron mine was used but mining stopped in 17th century.
The main sights in the town are the citadel, the mosque built in 1401/02 and commissioned by ''Pir Ali'' son of the
Aq Qoyunlu
The Aq Qoyunlu ( az, Ağqoyunlular , ) was a culturally Persianate,Kaushik Roy, ''Military Transition in Early Modern Asia, 1400–1750'', (Bloomsbury, 2014), 38; "Post-Mongol Persia and Iraq were ruled by two tribal confederations: Akkoyunlu (Wh ...
''Kutlu''.
The medieval Muslim tomb and bathhouse of ''Yazıcızadeler'' and the ruins of a church.
There were battles in this area between the Russians and Ottomans during World War I. The current location of the town was moved here after a
Safavid
Safavid Iran or Safavid Persia (), also referred to as the Safavid Empire, '. was one of the greatest Iranian empires after the 7th-century Muslim conquest of Persia, which was ruled from 1501 to 1736 by the Safavid dynasty. It is often conside ...
raid in the 16th century, the old site was near the citadel.
But the present structure is largely a restoration from later times.
Notable people
*
Munzur Çem
References
External links
District governor's official website
Populated places in Bingöl Province
Districts of Bingöl Province
Kurdish settlements in Turkey
{{Bingöl-geo-stub