File:Ahlat Bayindir kümbet and mosque.jpg

English: The Emir Bayındır mosque and tomb. It was built in 1491, founded by the governor of a Roha governor, Bayındır. The top floor looks like a round temple with a columnated corridor. The roof is supported by arches that rest on stalactite capitals. Only the back wall that sets it apart from the mosque is completely closed.

This is a detail of the türbe or tomb. Taken from a slide, older than the digital pictures.

Many Seljuk (and later Seljuk-style) mausolea are a stone evocation of the pre-islamic funeral hills of the nomads of Central Asia. During their lives, prominent clan members had their funeral hill (‘kurgan’) prepared; when death came, a circular tent was erected on top of the kurgan, and the deceased’s body was laid out, in order to be greeted a last time by the clan members. After this greeting period, the body was placed in the burial chamber inside the kurgan.

A ‘tent-style’ Seljuk Türbe has two parts: a circular or polygonal room with a pyramidal or cone roof, where a cenotaph sarcophagus can be visited and honoured; this is the part referring to the funeral tent. Beneath this ornamented construction the real burial chamber (‘cenazelik’ or ‘mumyalık’) is to be found, where the deceased’s remains were buried; this is the part referring to the burial hill.