Harran and Sanliurfa

First things first: The naming of the site is a bit misleading, as these are very historic places with multiple different names and spellings:

• Harran was known to the Romans as Carrhae. It is here that the Battle of Carrhae took place where Crassus and his army were slaughtered.
• Sanliurfa was known for most of its history simply as Urfa. The Turkish authorities added Sanli (glorious) in 80s to commemorate the valiant efforts of the locals during the Turkish War of Independence after WW1. Effectively, everyone still calls the place Urfa. You may also know the town as Edessa, which is the Greek name and was for a short while a crusader state.

Both cities are referenced (or claim to be referenced) in the bible, specifically relating to Abraham. Harran was a temporary home of Abraham and his ancestors. Urfa calls itself the City of Prophets and the birthplace of Abraham. This view is disputed. Still, the most prominent complex in Urfa is the area around the fish pond with the famous cave where according to local legend Abraham was born.

I came from cold Malatya in Anatolia. It was delight to leave the cold Anatolian plateau and arrive in Mesopotamia. Urfa and Harran more so no longer feel like Turkey, let alone Europe: This is the Middle East, After my mandatory visit to Göbekli Tepe, I dropped my luggage off at the hotel, a gorgeous historic town house in the old town. …

I visited Sanliurfa as a stopover between Gobeklitepe and Diyarbakir WHS. It is a very enjoyable and laid back city nicknamed the "City of Prophets". Its highlight, the Sacred Fish Lake or Abraham's Pool, is squeezed between the city proper (now also known as Urfa or Edessa in ancient times) and its imposing castle.

Sanliurfa was at the cross-roads of civilisations and was conquered repeatedly throughout history, and has been dominated by many civilizations, including the Ebla, Akkadians, Sumerians, Babylonians, Hittites, Hurri-Mitannis, Assyrians, Medes, Persians, Ancient Greeks (under Alexander the Great), Seleucids, Armenians, Arameans, the Neo-Assyrian Osrhoenes, Romans, Sassanids, Byzantines, Arabs, Seljuqs and Ottomans. According to Jewish and Muslim sources, Sanliurfa is believed to be Ur Kasdim, the hometown of Abraham, the grandfather of Jacob whom God named Israel. Sanliurfa is also one of several cities around the world that have traditions associated with Job (green tomb in photo, beneath the castle fortifications).

According to tradition, Nimrod had Abraham immolated on a funeral pyre, but God turned the fire into water and the burning coals into fish. The pool of sacred fish remains to this day and is believed to have healing properties. Any visitor can enter the glass floored praying area over the fish pond for free. The Islamic architecture and gardens around this pond are in a remarkable state of conservation and its decorations and architectural elements give a better idea of how places which are now in ruins, such as Medina al-Zahra in Spain, once …

The investment in my ‘All Turkey Tour’ of 1991 keeps on giving gifts. With a friend I had joined a 3 week group tour by bus all across Turkey. During that trip I visited 8 sites that are nowadays WHS. Also we touched upon numerous interesting TWHS. One lingering on Turkey’s Tentative List is Harran and Sanliurfa. These two ancient cities (located 40km apart) were among the highlights of the 1991 tour. This was mostly because of their very remote and oriental setting: I had not been outside of Europe at the time and Harran lies only some 25km north of the Syrian border.

Sanliurfa
Sanliurfa is a city of 2 million inhabitants. It is marketed as a Holy City and pilgrimage town. Old Testament prophets such as Jethro, Job, Elijah and Abraham are believed to have lived in this city. In ancient times it was known as Edessa.

Central to the city is The Pool of Sacred Fish, believed in Islamic tradition to have been the place where Abraham was thrown into the fire by Nimrod. This is also the only place that I remember of my visit – it obviously is tourist attraction #1.

Harran
Harran actually ticks so many boxes, there cannot be another outcome than that it will be a WHS somewhere in the future:

• It’s very very old: first inhabited in the Early Bronze Age III (3rd millennium BCE).
• It had a sanctuary to the Mesopotamian moon god Sin.
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