Ethnography Museum

The Ethnography Museum introduces Bitlis through the everyday things its people made and wore in the late Ottoman and early Republican years. It is a compact museum, easy to see in an hour, and a good first stop in a city better known for its stone architecture than for its collections.

The building itself follows local tradition and is built of Ahlat stone, the warm volcanic stone that gives the region's old streets and tombs their look. Upstairs, cases hold textiles, hand embroidery, ornaments, copper thread work and coins, together with jewellery, of which bracelets and belts stand out.

The garden is an open-air gallery of the region's building heritage, with carved decorative stones, hand mills and gravestones. Together the rooms and the garden give a picture of the social and religious life and the crafts of the province.