Batman

 city, capital city of state/province/region

Batman (Kurdish: Êlih, Arabic: بطمان‎) is a city in the Southeastern Anatolia Region of Turkey and the capital of Batman Province. It lies on a plateau, 540 meters (1,772 feet) above sea level, near the confluence of the Batman River and the Tigris. The Batı Raman oil field, which is the largest oil field in Turkey, is located just outside the city. Batman has a local airport and a military airbase, which was used for transit of aircraft and helicopters in some search and rescue operations of the Gulf War. The city has a population of 348,963, and the district 381,990, mostly kurdish.

Until the 1950s, Batman was a village called Iluh with a population of about 3,000. However, oil fields were discovered around it in the 1940s that resulted in a rapid development of the area and in the inflow of workforce from other parts of Turkey. In 1957, the village was renamed Batman, after the river namesake, received a city status and became a district center. Over the next 50 years, Batman was rebuilt from one-storey to multi-storeyed buildings and its population grew 100-fold. A 511 km (318 mi) km long oil pipeline was brought in 1967 from Batman to the port city of Dörtyol near the easternmost point of the Mediterranean coast to transport the crude oil from the Batman refinery. In 1990, the city became the capital of Batman Province.

Apart from oil, which is by far the dominant commodity of the region, Batman produces beverages, processed food, chemicals, furniture, footwear, machinery and transport equipment. A university was established here in 2007 and became part of the Erasmus foreign student exchange program.