About 110 miles (180 km) west of Kiziltepe, in South Eastern Anatolian region, lies the venerably old towns of Urfa (Sanliurfa). According to both the Bible and Quran it is the birthplace of Abraham before his migration to Canaan, now Palestine. Local Muslim legend differs from that of the other great monotheistic faiths by the intervention of one vicious and cruel King Nimrod, who had launched from a catapult from the city's citadel to fall into a pile of burning wood. Happily, God intervened, and turned the fire to water and the faggots to fish, and today, the visitor to the town can visit the mosque complex surrounding Abraham's Cave and The Pool of Sacred Fish (Balikligöl) surrounding it. The cruel ruler's giant slingshot is represented by two Corinthian columns still standing atop the citadel. 

This is an Anatolian city which has figured in all the religions of the book. Old Testament prophets such as Jethro (Hz. Suayp), Job (Hz. Eyup), Elijah (Hz. Elyasa) and Abraham (Hz. Ibrahim) lived in this city, which in ancient times known as Edessa, and Moses (Hz. Musa) lived in the region for seven years working as a shepherd before returning to Egypt with his staff. It was in Sanliurfa that early Christians were first permitted to worship freely, and where the first churches were constructed openly. Pagan temples were converted to synagogues, synagogues to churches and churches to mosques, resulting in a uniquely eclectic architecture. 

The city's history, is far more complex than mere legendary myths. Known to the ancient Greeks as Orrhoe or Osrhoe, the famous Seleucus Nicator of Antioch, first established the capital of his eastern Hellenistic realm here, populating it with Macedonian veterans who preferred to call it Edessa, after their native province. Urfa remained an important garrison town into Roman times, and was one of the first centers of the early church, but one given over to the monophysite heresy. 

It was at Edessa that the great scientific works of late antiquity were translated, with commentaries, into Syriac/Aramaic, from whence they made their way into Arabic after the Muslim conquest, only to find their way back to the west following the re-conquest of the city by the Byzantines and then the Crusaders. Under Baldwin I it became the first of several Crusader states in the Middle East. 

The city was finally sacked by the Kurdish Zengi dynasty, with all the men put to the sword and all the women sold into slavery in 1146. Following the standard Mongol conquest of the Middle East, ancient Edessa disappeared from history in the 13th century, reemerging only in the present century. Thanks for its survival should go to the local population who brilliantly resisted French attempts to include it in greater Syria during Ottoman period. Like many of the other towns which offered resistance at the time of War of Liberation, Urfa has received the honorific "Sanli" (Honored) to append to its name. 

Today, Urfa is a surprising mix of the old and new, with Turkish, Arab and Kurdish peasants who come from the countryside haggling in the traditional bazaar, while young technocrats and engineers hustle between offices and shops lining the modern downtown section. A city of some 1,300,000 (1997), Urfa is earmarked to be one of Turkey's largest metropolitan areas after the nearby Ataturk Dam 50 miles (75 km) north of town comes on-stream in the 1990s. Already the city has the single highest growth rate in the country, with many indigent farmers and absentee landlords from the nearby Harran plain returning with the promise of making the city the center of Turkey's new Fertile Crescent. Restaurants are packed with locals and foreigners dining on the famed Urfa kebab of Turkish Cuisine and other delights of the area. 
Where To Visit
MUSEUMS AND ANCIENT CITIES
The museum contains a collection of items excavated from the sites of ancient Harran and Lidar, especially jewellery and pottery from the funerary tumuli on plains of the Euphrates. The gardens contain sculptures, and there are several mosaics depicting images of wild animals. There are artefacts from the Assyrian, Hittite and Babylonian periods, and remains from Kurban Hoyuk, an ancient settlement now submerged under the lake of Ataturk Dam. The ethnography section has intricate wooden doors from traditional Urfa houses, reliefs with Hittite inscriptions and statues from Christian churches.
Museum Tel: (0414) 313 15 88
Opening hours: 08.30 – 12.00 & 13.30 – 17.30, closed Mondays.

Ancient Cities
Şuayb city: These historical ruins, now known as the village of Ozkent, are 88km east of Sanliurfa. It is thought that the remains of the city, built in a large area and surrounded with sturdy ramparts, dates back to the Roman period and there is a mosque on the site of the (supposed) home of the prophet Jethro. It is possible to explore the nearby caves.
Sogmatar: This simple village, 15km north of Suayb and 73km from Sanliurfa, is famous for its cave temple which was probably constructed during the 2nd century and used to worship the god of the moon, which was a deep-seated culture of Harran. The village, now in ruins, was the cultural centre of the god Marilaha and there was an open-air temple for praying and sacrificing animals. The temple walls contain Syriac writing and reliefs of human figures. On the rocks on the hill to the west of the castle, there are more figures of gods and ancient writings.
Nevali Çori: Antic settlement place named as Nevali Çori is in the borders of Kantara village depended to Hilvan county of Şanliurfa city. it take place near the Katara rivulet that is branch of Firat river and placed right side of river.
Kazane: The history of the Kazane settlement (Ugurcuk) can be traced back to 5000 BC. Excavations have unearthed the remains of houses and streets from this period, built on top of a small hill and above the water. Another discovery was an alphabet that translates the Sumerian to the Akad language.

HARRAN
South of Urfa, the landscape once more flattens into the Mesopotamian plain, broken only by the ancient mounds and obscure, mud brick villages. All of the villages are connected to electrical grids, and, with the prospect of greater wealth thanks to irrigation, many locals are investing in such "luxury" objects as refrigerators and televisions. Here lies a part of Turkey experiencing extremely rapid change, especially as it was formerly one of the poorest and least developed of any area in the country. 

Some nine miles (15 km) off the main tarmac road leading to Syria, turn left and ask for Sultantepe, apparently a major site in ancient Carrhae, where tablets inscribed with the legends of Gilgameth (Gilgamis) have been unearthed. Farther down the dirt road are the ruins of Sumurtar, a large mound with a labyrinth of passages and underground chambers used by the Sabians, worshippers of the sun, moon and planets. The grottos were clearly used for ceremonial purposes; some seem to have been later converted into subterranean mosques replete with mihrab facing the direction of Mecca. 

Back toward the main road is the village of Harran itself, with its beehive-like dwellings. Here was the site of the Temple of Sin (known also as the first university), famous throughout the ancient world for its star readers and savants. It was in Harran where Rebecca drew water for Jacob, from whence Abraham decided to make his move into the land of Canaan. This was also where the Roman Emperor Crassus was defeated by the Parthians, with the Legion standards captured and brought back to Ctesiphon to the undying shame of the Romans; Crassus himself reportedly died by having liquid gold poured down his mouth. Later, the Emperor Julian the Apostate worshipped the moon here on the way to his fateful encounter with Shapur I farther east. Harran was also the last hold out of the Sabians, the pagans who had managed to survive through to the 11th century. Standing atop the ruins of the ancient citadel, one overlooks the scattered bits of rock and material - history stretching back to the very dawn of time: the very potsherds crunching underfoot have an immediacy here, the broken vessels having surely been used by some long forgotten ancestor from the land of Ur, an acquaintance of Abraham, or a Roman legionnaire from Gaul, whose memory now swirls with the dust devils across the oblate horizon.