Tatvan ( ) is a city on the western shore of

Lake Van Lake Van ( tr, Van Gölü; hy, Վանա լիճ, translit=Vana lič̣; ku, Gola Wanê) is the largest lake in Turkey. It lies in the far east of Turkey, in the provinces of Van and Bitlis in the Armenian highlands. It is a saline soda lake ...

. It is the chief city of Tatvan District within

Bitlis Province Bitlis Province ( tr, , , ku, Parêzgeha Bidlîsê) is a province of eastern Turkey, located to the west of Lake Van. The province is considered part of Western Armenia by Armenians. The province is considered part of Turkish Kurdistan and ...

in eastern

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula ...

, and has about 96,000 inhabitants. The current Mayor is Mehmet Emin Geylani ( AKP). The district is fully Kurdish.

History

The citadel at Eski Tatvan possibly dates back to the Urartian period; it was used until at least the 17th century.

Sayf al-Dawla ʿAlī ibn ʾAbū l-Hayjāʾ ʿAbdallāh ibn Ḥamdān ibn al-Ḥārith al-Taghlibī ( ar, علي بن أبو الهيجاء عبد الله بن حمدان بن الحارث التغلبي, 22 June 916 – 9 February 967), more commonly known ...

, the

Hamdanid The Hamdanid dynasty ( ar, الحمدانيون, al-Ḥamdāniyyūn) was a Twelver Shia Arab dynasty of Northern Mesopotamia and Syria (890–1004). They descended from the ancient Banu Taghlib Christian tribe of Mesopotamia and Eastern ...

emir of

Aleppo )), is an adjective which means "white-colored mixed with black". , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = , map_caption = , image_map1 = ...

, visited Tatvan in 939/40; while he was here, he received the submission of the Armenian prince

Ashot III of Taron Ashot III ( el, Ἀσώτιος, ''Asotios''; Arabic: ''Ashūṭ ibn Ghirghūr'' and ''Ibn Ṭurnīq''; ) was the last independent ruler of the southern Armenian region of Taron from until his death in 967. Ashot was a natural son of Grigor I o ...

. The town was historically a stage on the route from

Van A van is a type of road vehicle used for transporting goods or people. Depending on the type of van, it can be bigger or smaller than a pickup truck and SUV, and bigger than a common car. There is some varying in the scope of the word across th ...

Bitlis Bitlis ( hy, Բաղեշ '; ku, Bidlîs; ota, بتليس) is a city in southeastern Turkey and the capital of Bitlis Province. The city is located at an elevation of 1,545 metres, 15 km from Lake Van, in the steep-sided valley of the Bitlis R ...

. By the 20th century, though, Tatvan had dwindled to a mere village, little more than "a cluster of houses by a jetty". It only developed back into a town until transport links improved around mid-century, with the construction of the railway in the 1950s and the improvement of the road to Van in 1964. In the 1980s, T.A. Sinclair wrote that the Denizcilik Bankası (Shipping Company) ran a good hotel on the south side of town, which was often full; the other hotels at the time, he wrote, were in the town center and were not good.

Transport

The

Tatvan Pier railway station Tatvan Pier railway station ( tr, Tatvan İskele istasyonu) is a railway station and pier in Tatvan, Turkey. Situated on the western shore of Lake Van, the station serves as a connection between modes of transport, with two slips carrying a total ...

, which is the eastern terminus of the railway line between Ankara and

Teheran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...

, with freight and passenger trains. It is connected eastwards to

, 100 km away, and westwards to the rest of Turkey, by State Road D300. There is also a

train ferry A train ferry is a ship (ferry) designed to carry railway vehicles. Typically, one level of the ship is fitted with railway tracks, and the vessel has a door at the front and/or rear to give access to the wharves. In the United States, train ...

across the

lake Van Lake Van ( tr, Van Gölü; hy, Վանա լիճ, translit=Vana lič̣; ku, Gola Wanê) is the largest lake in Turkey. It lies in the far east of Turkey, in the provinces of Van and Bitlis in the Armenian highlands. It is a saline soda lake ...

. The ferry was upgraded in 2015. There is no railway around the lake to Van; it is intended eventually to build one but to date there are no plans. This would actually create an unbroken rail link between Europe and the Indian subcontinent, as Van is effectively the western terminus of the Iranian railway network. There is a bus station about 500 meters from the train station.

Climate

References

External links

Mayor's web site

Tatvan in brief
Populated places in Bitlis Province Kurdish settlements in Turkey {{Bitlis-geo-stub

History

Transport

Climate

See also

References

External links