Bitlis Castle rises above the city’s rocky stream valleys. Written accounts connect it with the Kurdish emirate, while excavations reveal pottery, water infrastructure and the everyday life inside its walls.

Bitlis Castle masonry on a sheer rock face above a narrow stream, with trees, houses and dry hills beyond
The castle’s rock-supported walls and neighbouring stream valley, photographed by Dosseman on 10 September 2012. This view predates the excavation discoveries discussed below. © Dosseman · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0.

A fortress above a lived-in valley

Bitlis Castle, or Kela Bidlîsê, occupies a rocky prominence in the centre of Bitlis. Its setting brings steep natural faces, masonry defences and the surrounding town into close contact. The photograph shows this relationship at stream level: the wall continues above exposed rock, with houses across the narrow valley. Yet the castle was also a place of habitation and work. Archaeological studies examine rooms, streets, storage and a bath as well as defences. Understanding the site therefore involves the people who cooked, stored goods, circulated water and maintained buildings within it. [1] [7]

Founding stories and archaeological dates

The familiar story linking the fortress to Alexander and a builder named Bedlis belongs to the site’s historical storytelling. Repeating a precise ancient foundation year does not make it an excavated construction date. Karasu’s study of glazed ceramics from the 2022 season identifies medieval and Ottoman material, while explaining the limitations imposed by disturbed or difficult stratigraphy. Pottery form, fabric and glaze can help date particular finds; they cannot alone identify the builder of every surviving wall. The visible fortress has a history of occupation and alteration whose separate phases require their own evidence. [1] [2]

The Kurdish emirate and the traveller’s account

Bitlis was a major Kurdish emirate whose rulers negotiated, and sometimes fought, with neighbouring imperial authorities. Martin van Bruinessen’s study follows Evliya Çelebi’s visits in 1655–56. Evliya first enjoyed Abdal Khan’s hospitality, then accompanied Melek Ahmed Pasha’s expedition against him and witnessed the looting of his library. On returning he found Abdal Khan in power again and was himself detained. This sequence shows that the 1655 intervention was not the immediate, permanent disappearance of local rule. It also explains why the traveller offers such a vivid, personally involved account of the court. [3]

Pots, food and ordinary activities

Yunus Emre Karasu’s publication of unglazed ceramics from the 2022 excavations examines cooking, storage, serving and lighting vessels. Much of the studied material belongs to the late Ottoman occupation, with local production alongside imported examples. Its value lies in reconstructing repeated daily activities rather than only cataloguing decorated prestige objects. The research also describes excavation around the palace and south of Sinan Bey Bath, including a drainage feature interpreted as serving the bath and a late Ottoman street. A vessel’s archaeological context matters because similar practical shapes can persist over long periods. [1]

Supplying water and controlling an entrance

In a direct interview published by Anadolu Agency on 19 September 2024, provincial cultural director Ali Fuat Eker described excavated terracotta pipes supplying cisterns and Sinan Bey Bath. The team tentatively associated the system with sixteenth-century construction. A separate September 2025 report quotes museum representative Azad Örmek on a 29-centimetre, double-toothed iron key thought to belong to the main entrance. Excavators also identified a vaulted palace reception space. Both the proposed key association and dating were presented as work under study, rather than certainty about the identity of an individual owner. [4] [5]

Excavation and conservation in 2026

DHA’s on-site report of 27 July 2026 quotes scientific adviser Yunus Emre Karasu describing a newly exposed north–south route from the southern entrance toward the palace. Many remains then being uncovered were assigned to the late Ottoman period. The report distinguishes excavation from the restoration intended to follow, and records further work planned in the central area and original U-shaped entrance. These dated statements give a clearer account of the project than a standing promise that the whole site is finished or freely accessible. The 2012 photograph is a historical view of the setting, not documentation of the 2026 work. [6] [7]

Sources and further reading

  1. Yunus Emre Karasu, “Unglazed Ceramics in the Daily Life of the Ottoman Period in Bitlis Castle (2022 Excavation Season),” Korkut Ata Türkiyat Araştırmaları Dergisi 11 (2023), pp. 1066–1088, DOI 10.51531/korkutataturkiyat.1310053: original excavation research.
  2. Yunus Emre Karasu, “Glazed Ceramics of Bitlis Castle from the Medieval to Late Ottoman Period,” Selçuk Üniversitesi Türkiyat Araştırmaları Dergisi 63 (2024), DOI 10.21563/sutad.1299895: dating, stratigraphic limitations and ceramic connections.
  3. Martin van Bruinessen, “Kurdistan in the 16th and 17th Centuries, as Reflected in Evliya Çelebi’s Seyahatname,” Journal of Kurdish Studies 3 (2000), pp. 1–11, especially p. 2: scholarly reading of the traveller’s encounters in Bitlis.
  4. Şener Toktaş, Anadolu Agency, direct excavation interview with Ali Fuat Eker (19 September 2024): terracotta water pipes, cisterns and Sinan Bey Bath.
  5. Şener Toktaş, Anadolu Agency, interview with Azad Örmek (24 September 2025): proposed entrance key, vaulted reception space and ongoing dating.
  6. Özcan Çiriş, DHA, on-site report (27 July 2026), including Yunus Emre Karasu’s account of the entrance-to-palace route and further excavation/restoration plans.
  7. Dosseman, Bitlis Kalesi 3701, 10 September 2012, CC BY-SA 4.0: original photograph of castle walls and the stream valley.