Bingöl

Bingöl is a city in Eastern Turkey. It is surrounded by mountains and a large number of glacier lakes, hence the name (Turkish for a thousand lakes). Lately, the town has become a popular tourist destination. According to 2017 estimates, it has a population of over 111.000.Bingöl is the capital of Bingöl Province, one of the 81 provinces of Turkey.On May 1, 2003 the whole area suffered from a magnitude 6.4 earthquake, leaving 177 dead and 520 injured. On 8 March 2010, the area suffered another earthquake, of magnitude 5.9, with its epicenter in Elâzığ Province, 45km west of Bingöl.HistoryIn the Middle Ages, Bingöl was known as Romanoupolis (Ῥωμανούπολις) after the Byzantine emperor Romanos I Lekapenos, who incorporated it permanently into the Byzantine Empire in 942. It initially formed a subdivision of the thema of Mesopotamia, but it was later (ca. 970) elevated into a separate theme.Until the middle of the 20th century, the city was known as Çapakçur/Çabakçur, according to its Armenian name of Chapaghjur ("rough waters"). The place was then renamed Bingöl, a term of Turkish origin translating as "thousand lakes".