Bingöl is 144 kilometres (89 mi) east of Elâzig and is situated in the high region of Eastern Anatolia. Bingöl is a mountainous area with heights reaching 3000m, Bingöl city is at about 1120m above sea level. The Gayt River, a right-bank tributary of the Eastern Euphrates (Murat River), runs through the city.

In the Middle Ages, Bingöl was known as Romanoupolis 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.

Bingöl was ruled by the Kurdish Suveydi Dynasty from 13 centuries to 1864, which ruled the Bingöl region autonomously subject to the Ottoman's in 1514. 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".