The history of the land begins with the Urartians,
and continues under the hegemony of the Persians, the Seljuks
and then the Ottomans.
Bingöl, 144 km's east of Elazig, is
located in a high region of the broad Eastern
Anatolian plateau. Mountains surround the area, reaching heights of
about 3000 m (10,000 ft), and containing many glacier lakes giving the
city its name of "a thousand lakes". Kalatepe peak (3250 m) on the Bingöl
Mountains, near the town of Karliova is a great place to watch the magnificent
sunrise, especially between the 15th of July
and the 15th of August.
The history of the land begins with the Urartians,
and continues under the hegemony of the Persians, the Seljuks
and then the Ottomans.
The remains from these periods can be found at various sites, the most important being the medieval fortress inside the city center. The city is small but has good facilities for hunting, thermal bathing and winter sports. There is a very interesting small lake (300 sqm), in which there is the floating natural island, at Hazersah village near Solhan.
Kurucadag mountain at Yolcati district is a small skiing area approximately 25 kms to the city center. The season is between February and March where skiers stay in mountain chalet's. On 1000 meters long skiing track there is a 925 meters long telesiege with a capacity of 500 people per hour. It's easily reachable by road with buses as well.
On 1st of May 2003 a terrible
earthquake hit the city killing over 140 people (mostly elementary school kids
sleeping in their dormitory). It struck at 03:27 local time and lasted for 17
seconds, with a Richter scale of 6.4.
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