Batman

Understand

thumb | 300px | Farewell to Batman This was the insignificant Kurdish village of Iluh until oil was discovered nearby: first the Raman field from 1940, then the larger Batı (meaning west) Raman field from 1961. They’re Turkey’s largest oilfield and remain in production, with decades of proven reserves. This quickly led to sprawling industry, immigration of labour and a rash of shoddy ill-planned buildings. It also made the new city a focus of ethnic tensions: Turkish central government sought a tight grip on a place too lucrative to be trusted to the Kurds. For starters, that Kurdish placename would have to change. The river which flows a few km west to join the Tigris is called Batman from a contraction of Batı Raman, and in 1957 the city adopted that name.

In 1939 a similarly lucrative resource was tapped into when Bob Kane and Bill Finger created the comic character Batman. He’s still going strong approaching a century later, and occasional tourists are drawn by the name to the city of Batman. In 2008 the mayor Hüseyin Kalkan proclaimed that he was going to sue Warner Bros for use of the city name in The Dark Knight: no such suit followed and it was laughed off as a publicity stunt. But it was as much about publicising his own imprisonment for promoting Kurdish self-identity, tantamount to terrorism in Turkish state eyes. His predecessor and successor mayors were likewise imprisoned, until by 2020 the central government tired of the charade of democracy and put its own p…

Get around

Buses, dolmuşes and taxis ply the main streets of this sprawling town.

See

thumb | 300px | Downtown Ulu Cami or Grand Mosque is by the railway station on 715th Sk. It was built from 1956 and is fairly plain. Yıldız Cami Kebir is a modern-style building, unusual for a Turkish mosque. It's 500 m northeast of the railway station at Atatürk Blv 81.

Do

Photograph the "Batman" town sign, preferably at a point on the highway where it's safe to stop. Football: Batman Petrolspor were promoted in 2026 and now play soccer in TFF 1. Lig, the second tier. Their stadium (capacity 15,000) is south edge of the city. Hamams are traditional Turkish baths. There's half a dozen round city centre.

Buy

Batman Park AVM is the main shopping centre, by the junction of Turgut Özal Blv and Ahmet Necdet Sezer Blv. It's open daily 10:00-22:00.