Ahlat, the world's largest Muslim cemetery and the first foot set on the land of Asia Minor by the Seljuk Turks, is located on the shores of Lake Van in the province of Bitlis in the south-eastern part of Turkey. Ahlat is about 55kms far away from Bitlis and was founded by Seljuk Turks to be used as the military base for raids through inner parts of Asia Minor which used to be under authority of Byzantines. Ahlat became the Turkish town after the Mankizert battlefield in 1071A.D. so the town is full of Turkish cemeteries for martrys lost in wars whom they were buried in graves and the stones were erected as the oldest Turcoman traditions with written inscriptions on behalf of them. That is why Ahlat is accepted as the biggest Turkish-Islamic cemetery with more than 8000 endengared Seljuk gravestones and sarcophagus. The tombs and stones in Ahlat are unique and Ahlat cemetery is accepted as the biggest open-air gravestone museum in Turkey today. The mass Ahlat graves and tombstones which reflect Turkish architecture of medieval ages are usually located in the old part of the town. About 1000 of them are very large dimensions in 3.5-4 metres in height and has beautiful decorations with written inscriptions as rectangular shapes on each side. Each of them is unique and has a private article in meaning not two is similar. Ahlat tombstones are also considered as monuments by the scientists and they are approximately 900 years old written documents in Turkish history. The written documents have been examined in details, the inscriptions read by the experts and have been translated into Turkish from Arabic. Turkish government has declared Ahlat as one of the preserved area and has applied to UNESCO taking Ahlat gravestones into the list of Worl Heritage in 1983.