The Culture and Tourism Ministry has documented nearly 7,000 tombstones and inscriptions bearing traces of the Turkish-Islamic civilization as part of a nationwide project that expanded from four provinces in 2025 to 18 in 2026.
Launched in 2024, the National Inventory Project for Tombstones and Inscriptions of the Turkish-Islamic Period aims to record Anatolia’s historical and cultural heritage through scientific methods and bring the findings together in a comprehensive national digital database.
Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy shared details of the project’s progress in a social media post, saying fieldwork that began in Tokat, Denizli, Istanbul and Diyarbakır in 2025 had expanded to 18 provinces this year.
“So far, we have documented approximately 7,000 artifacts,” Ersoy said.
Tombstones offer historical insights
Ersoy emphasized that tombstones and inscriptions provide information beyond names and dates, offering insights into the social and cultural life, artistic traditions and aesthetic values of the periods in which they were created.
“Each tombstone and inscription is a historical document that carries traces of the language, art, beliefs, aesthetic understanding and social life of its time, beyond the name of an individual,” he said.
Fieldwork expands
The project’s initial fieldwork was carried out in 2025 under the supervision of academics in Tokat, Denizli, Istanbul and Diyarbakır.
Researchers documented 243 upright grave markers at the cemetery in Alaattin neighborhood in the Acıpayam district of Denizli, 504 tombstones at the Şeyh Mustafa Devâtî burial ground in Istanbul, 13 at the Mahmutpaşa Mosque burial ground in Tokat and 99 at the Fatih Paşa Mosque burial ground in Diyarbakır.
A total of 859 artifacts were documented across the four provinces during the project’s first year.
The fieldwork expanded to 18 provinces in 2026, with records for nearly 7,000 artifacts added to the database so far. Work is scheduled to continue through the end of the year.
National digital archive planned
The project aims to identify and document tombstones and inscriptions from the Turkish-Islamic period across Türkiye and consolidate the collected information in a shared national database.
The records will be examined according to various criteria, including historical period, region, material, script, artistic style and inscription characteristics.
The ministry plans to continue the work in the coming years to cover the entire country and develop the inventory into a comprehensive scholarly resource for researchers.
“Our goal is to bring this unique heritage from across our country together in a shared digital database and gradually transform it into a comprehensive scholarly resource,” Ersoy said. “We are documenting, preserving and passing on Anatolia’s memory carved in stone to future generations through scientific methods.”