🇹🇷 Urfa, officially known as Şanlıurfa, is a city in south-eastern Turkey, and the capital of Şanlıurfa Province. Urfa has a Turkish, Kurdish and Arab population. Urfa is situated on a plain about 80 km east of the Euphrates River. Its climate features extremely hot, dry summers and cool, moist winters.
About 12 km (7 mi) north-east of the city is the famous Neolithic site of Göbekli Tepe, the world's oldest-known temple, which was founded in the 10th millennium BCE. The area was part of a network of the first human settlements where the agricultural revolution took place. Because of its association with Jewish, Christian, and Islamic history, and a legend according to which it was the hometown of Abraham, Urfa is nicknamed as the "City of Prophets".
Religion is important in Urfa. The city "has become a centre of fundamentalist Islamic beliefs" and "is considered one of the most devoutly religious cities in Turkey".
The city is located 30 miles from the Atatürk Dam, at the heart of the Southeast Anatolia Project, which draws thousands of job-seeking rural villagers to the city every year.
1Name The oldest name for the city is the Syriac Orhay, which is derived from either the Semitic root -r-w-ʿ, meaning "to bring water", or the Greek name "Orrha", meaning "beautiful flowing water".
James Silk Buckingham claimed that in earlier times, the city was known as Ruha, and with the Arabic article, it became Ar-Ruha, evolving into Urha, and eventually Urfa. Carsten Niebuhr observed that Turks called the city El-Rohha in the 18th century, although Buckingham who later visited Urfa, disagreed and noted that all Turks, and most Arabs and Kurds in the surrounding countryside called it Urfa, while a small portion of the Christians called it as the former. The city is called Riha in Kurdish. The city is known as Ուռհա, Urha, in Armenian.
In 1984, the Turkish National Assembly granted Urfa the title "Şanlı", meaning "glorious", in honor of its citizens' resistance against British and French troops at the end of the First World War, hence the present name "Şanlıurfa".
1Geography Urfa is located at the border between the foothills of the Taurus Mountains and the great Mesopotamian plain. In general, these two regions meet "well to the south" of Urfa, but around Harran the plain extends northward, cutting into the hills. At the north-western corner of the Harran plain, there is another extension in the plain, this time going westward. Urfa is located in this second extension of the plains, tucked behind the hills at its southern edge.
A small stream flows through Urfa. This stream is known as the Daisan, or "leaping river", after its tendency for flooding. Today, the Daisan flows through a man-made channel that follows the north and east sides of the old walled city. Before the channel was made, though, the stream's natural course was on the west side of the old city, then it turned east. Part of the former course survives as the fish pool called Birket Ibrahim, which tradition associates with the prophet Abraham. To the south of the stream's old course is a spring in a cave that is now converted into a mosque.: , 6
Since the 20th century, Urfa has expanded northward, across the little plain and the hill known as Şehitlik Mahallesi with blocks of flats, as well as over the escarpment to the south.
1History Urfa was founded as a city under the name Edessa by the Seleucid king Seleucus I Nicator in 303 or 302 BC. There is no written evidence for earlier settlement at the site, but Urfa's favorable commercial and geographical placement suggests that there was a smaller settlement present prior to 303 BC. The indigenous Aramaic name for the site prior to the Seleucid period was Orhai or Orhay, which survives as the basis of the city's modern Turkish name. Perhaps Orhai's absence from earlier written sources is due to the settlement having been small and unfortified prior to the Seleucid period. Seleucus named the city Edessa after the ancient capital of Macedonia.
In the late 2nd century, as the Seleucid dynasty disintegrated, it became the capital of the Arab Nabataean Abgar dynasty, which was successively Parthian, Aramean/Syriac kingdom Osroene, Armenian, and Roman client state and eventually a Roman province. Its location on the eastern frontier of the Empire meant it was frequently conquered during periods when the Byzantine central government was weak, and for centuries, it was alternately conquered by Arab, Byzantine, Armenian, and Turkoman rulers. It fell under the rule of the Seljuks until the First Crusade. On 10 March 1098, the Crusader Baldwin of Boulogne induced the final Armenian ruler to adopt him as his successor then, after seizing power, established the first Crusader State in the East, known as the County of Edessa. Unlike other crusaders states, Christian groups such as Armenian Apostolic were allowed to keep their customs and institutions, and a level of religious tolerance was established towards Indigenous Christians, Jews and Muslims.
Urfa was conquered by Imad al-Din Zengi in 1144 after a month-long siege, and from that point the city came under the Zengid dynasty. The last Crusader count of Edessa besieged the city again in 1146 in an attempt to retake it from the Zengids, but only held the city for six days before being defeated by Zangi's son Nur ad-Din. Urfa's population was massacred in the process, and its Christian community never recovered.
After the Zengids, Urfa was ruled by the Kurdish Ayyubid dynasty from 1182 to 1260, when it was captured by the Mongols. In the early 1300s, it became part of the Mamluk Sultanate, and then the Aq Qoyunlu captured it in the early 1400s. The Ottoman Empire took Urfa from the Mamluk Sultanate around 1517 and ruled it until the 20th century. Under Ottoman rule, Urfa was initially made centre of Raqqa Eyalet, laterly part Urfa (Sanjak) of the Aleppo Vilayet. The area became a centre of trade in cotton, leather, and jewellery.
1First World War During the First World War, Urfa was a site of the Armenian and Assyrian genocides, beginning in 1915. Members of Urfa's Armenian community were deported and killed. In May, 18 families were deported from Urfa, and in June, 50 people were arrested, tortured, and then deported to Diyarbakır, where they were killed on the road. Urfa was also a stop on the deportation route, and the Urfa resistance in October was composed of Armenians deported from Van and Diyarbakır. Survivors from killings elsewhere had begun to arrive in Urfa, and by mid-August, massacres had begun in Urfa itself. Some 400 Armenians were taken to the edge of town and killed during a four-day period from 15–19 August.[note 2] Another massacre took place on 23 September, when 300 Armenians were killed.
In response to the Urfa resistance in October, Mehmet Celal Bey, who had served as governor of Aleppo before being sacked for refusing to comply with the order to deport the local Armenians, commented: "Each human has the right to live. A trampled worm will squirm and wriggle. The Armenians will defend themselves". The final event of the resistance was on 15 October, when several thousand Turkish troops attacked their position. The next day, some 20,000 Armenian deportees in transit were killed in and around Urfa.
Meanwhile, during the Russian occupation of Western Armenia, many Turks fleeing those regions came and settled in Urfa. Mehmet Adil Saraç estimates that around 8 to 10 thousand Turks migrated to the Urfa region this way.
At the end of the First World War, the Treaty of Sèvres assigned Urfa to the French-controlled Mandate of Syria, 5 km south of the border with Turkey. As a result, Urfa was occupied by British and then French troops. Locals from Urfa formed a militia and successfully drove out the occupying troops on 11 April 1920. The 1923 Treaty of Lausanne officially settled the matter by including Urfa as part of the new Republic of Turkey.
Under the new republic, Urfa was made capital of the new Urfa Province on 20 April 1924.
Urfa Halkevi was established on 23 February 1934, on a site that had earlier been occupied by a vocational school called the Mekteb-i Sanayi. The halkevi opened with only 7 branches: Language and Literature, Fine Arts, Representation, Sport, Social Assistance, Library and Publication, and Villagers.: , 99 An eighth branch, People's Classrooms and Courses, was added in 1935. Throughout its existence, the Urfa Halkevi faced financial difficulties. It was eventually closed down when the halkevi program was abolished in 1951.
During this period, there were 7 newspapers in Urfa: the Urfa'da Milli Gazete ("National Gazette in Urfa"), Yeni Işık ("New Light"), Yenilik ("Newness"), Işık ("Light"), Urfa, Akgün ("White Day"), and İrfan ("Knowledge").
1History: 21st century During the Syrian Civil War, thousands of Syrian refugees fled to Turkey, and many of them settled in Urfa. When Raqqa became the capital of the Islamic State, Urfa became a gateway for jihadists entering Syria because of its closeness to the Akçakale-Tall Abyad border crossing and to Raqqa itself. The city's general religious-conservative climate meant that many locals who adhere to Salafi thought sympathized with the Islamic State, and many of its members lived in the city as well.
On 6 February 2023, Urfa suffered some damage from the twin Turkey-Syria earthquakes.
1Tourist Industry • Urfa castle – built in antiquity, the current walls were constructed by the Abbasids in 814 AD. • The legendary Pool of Sacred Fish (Balıklıgöl) where Abraham was thrown into the fire by Nimrod. The pool is in the courtyard of the mosque of Halil-ur-Rahman, built by the Kurdish Ayyubids in 1211 and now surrounded by the attractive Gölbaşı-gardens designed by architect Merih Karaaslan. The courtyard is where the fishes thrive. A local legend says seeing a white fish will open the door to the heavens. • Rızvaniye Mosque – a more recent (1716) Ottoman mosque, adjoining the Balıkligöl complex. • 'Ayn Zelîha – A source nearby the historical centre, named after Zulaykha, a follower of Abraham. • The Great Mosque of Urfa was built in 1170, on the site of a Christian church the Arabs called the "Red Church", probably incorporating some Roman masonry. Contemporary tradition at the site identifies the well of the mosque as that into which the towel or burial cloth (mendil) of Jesus was thrown (see Image of Edessa and Shroud of Turin). In the south wall of the medrese adjoining the mosque is the fountain of Firuz Bey (1781). • Ruins of the ancient city walls. • Eight Turkish baths built in the Ottoman period. • The traditional Urfa houses were split into sections for family (harem) and visitors (selâm). There is an example open to the public next to the post office in the district of Kara Meydan. • The Temple of Nevali Çori – Neolithic settlement dating back to 8000BC, now buried under the Atatürk Reservoir, with some artefacts relocated above the waterline. • Göbekli Tepe – The world's oldest known temple, dated 10th millennium BC (ca 11,500 years ago).
1The citadel Urfa castle is located on the rocky heights south of the historical city center. It is long and thin because it crowns a ridge.
The hilltop was the site of an Abgarid winter palace built in the 3rd century; the two columns are the only remnant of this palace. The first known fortification of the site dates from the early 6th century, under the emperor Justinian. Fortifications may have existed here previously, but if they did then they went unrecorded.
The fortress was generally well-maintained during the middle ages, and it withstood a number of attacks. It was destroyed on the orders of the Ayyubid sultan al-Kamil around 1235. In the early 1300s, it was rebuilt under the Mamluk sultan an-Nasir Muhammad. It was further renovated under the Aq Qoyunlu in the 1400s, and then again under the Ottomans at various points: under Suleiman the Magnificent in the 1500s and then under Murad IV in the early 1600s.
Urfa's castle was garrisoned with janissaries until their dissolution in 1826. It was already in serious disrepair by that point, though; only the part where the janissaries were posted was maintained at all. Afterwards, the citadel was essentially abandoned. In 1849, a local citizen named Sakıp Efendi dismantled part of the citadel and used the stones to build an inn and market; he also allegedly took a lot of stones to sell for money.
1Old city walls The monumental walls surrounding the old town date from the Abbasid-era rebuilding in 812. The only major repairs to them took place during the early Ottoman period, in 1660–61, when there was restoration work done on the city's fortifications in general. The walls are made of large stone blocks over 30 cm tall all the way through (i.e. not just on the faces). The early Ottoman repairs are distinguished by their small size, white color, and light bossing. In many places, people have built private houses directly adjoining the city wall's inner face, so that it forms one side of the house. Because of Urfa's location, the east wall was always the most exposed to attack; large chunks of the surviving sections here consist of Ottoman repairs.
There were three known gates in the city walls: the Harran Gate; the Bey Kapısı, or "Lord's Gate"; and the Saray Kapısı, or "Palace Gate". The Harran Gate, located near the south-east corner of the walled city, still exists; its outer face (outside the walls) was rebuilt at some point, possibly during the Ottoman renovations of 1660–61. Its inner face, however, dates back to the Ayyubid period, under the local ruler Muzaffar Ghazi Shihab ad-Din (1230–45). The inscription recording his name runs almost from one end of the gatehouse to the other; below it, and above the top of the arch, is a small relief of a double-headed eagle.
The monumental Bey Kapısı, located on the east side of the old city, also still exists, although the actual gate no longer does. The original gatehouse was built in ancient times, perhaps during the 4th or 6th century. It probably had two large U-shaped towers with two or three gates in between them. Those two towers still exist today, although they were completely rebuilt over the centuries so that none of the original structures remain. The south tower kept its shape, but the north tower is now shaped like a polygon with straight sides. The entire gatehouse was turned into a fortress in the early middle ages. This may have happened during the Abbasid rebuilding of the city walls in 812, but in any case it had already happened by the early 11th century when sources refer to two castles in the city. The fortress consisted of a rectangular enclosure with the two towers on its east side; the north tower was probably rebuilt at this point. The fortress's entire eastern wall appears to have been moved back by about 12 m and the old gates were closed up in the process. The new gate was built at the north-west corner of the fortress, between it and the main city wall, so that there was a passage between them. At some point, this passage was blocked up. The Armenian prince Toros appears to have begun a rebuilding of the Bey Kapısı fortress, as attested by an Armenian inscription on the south tower, but this project was only finished under the crusaders. Later, during the Ottoman renovations of 1660–61, the fortress was rebuilt again. In the mid-1800s, the entire fortress was converted into a private residence, and rebuilding from this period has replaced most of the earlier masonry in many places.
As for the Saray Kapısı, it no longer exists, but it was originally located behind the bridge that takes Atatürk Caddesi over the river on the north side of town.
1Balıklıgöl According to legend, Balıklıgöl was formed by the prophet Abraham's confrontation with the tyrant Nimrod, who supposedly ruled over Urfa from the citadel above. When Abraham came of age, he destroyed Nimrod's idols, and in retaliation Nimrod "made a catapult out of the castle's twin pillars" and hurled Abraham into a pit of fire below. When Abraham landed, the flames miraculously turned into water, and the wood used to stoke the fire was turned into carp.
The carp are now called kutsal balıklar, or "sacred fish", and the spring water is believed to have healing properties. The fish are not eaten. According to legend, anyone who eats the carp will go blind.
In ancient times, the pond and its carp were sacred to the fertility goddess Atargatis, or Tar'atha. With the shift in religion, the pond and its fish became associated with the prophet Abraham instead. This pond is mentioned in the late-4th-century account of the Christian pilgrim Egeria, who spent three days at Edessa and wrote that the fish were "shining and succulent". According to Drijvers, a temple to Atargatis once stood in this area.
There was a major effort to renovate the Balıklıgöl complex in the 1990s and turn it into a cultural heritage site, clearing out "noisy vernacular elements" and making it into a tidy, organized space.: , 9 Before, the complex was run-down and crowded in by makeshift houses, which the authorities considered "an eyesore and a safety hazard" and were expropriated and demolished.
Balıklıgöl is associated with folk religious practices which, in recent decades, have become somewhat controversial with Muslim revivalists who "insist that such things have no place in Islam". For example, on Qadr Night (Kadır Gecesi), the night commemorating the first revelation of the Qur'an to Muhammad, tens of thousands of Muslims come to Balıklıgöl to "spend the night awake in communal worship". This practice may have its origins in the Christian ritual of incubation that was practiced in Christian Edessa. The city's mufti also brings out a glass case that supposedly contains Muhammad's beard (Sakal-ı Şerif), and people crowd around and try to touch or kiss it. According to local tradition, spending Qadr Night at Balıklıgöl three years in a row is equivalent to one pilgrimage to Mecca – although such a claim tends to be frowned upon by Muslim clerics.
1Halil ür-Rahman Cami The Halil ür-Rahman Cami, also called simply the Halil Cami, is a mosque and medrese located on the south side of the pool. Just south of the mosque is a cave which according to legend is where the prophet Abraham was born. Another tradition says that Abraham intended to sacrifice his son Isaac here, but sacrificed a goat instead; when he did, a spring gushed out, feeding the fish pool.
The earliest part of the complex is the minaret, which was built in 1211–12 under Ayyubid rule. There was presumably a mosque with a prayer hall on the site of the present one, which was completely rebuilt in 1819–20 (but probably similar to the original one). The other major component is a series of medrese "cells", fronted by a portico, which were built in 1808–09 and then renovated in 1871–72. The original Ayyubid complex may have been built to serve as a medrese, but by Ottoman times it was being used as a tekke with kitchens, reception rooms, and guest rooms, which may have been on the same site as the medrese cells. The tekke complex was converted into a medrese in the 1800s, possibly as soon as the medrese cells were built.
The mosque itself now serves as an antechamber where prayers can be said before entering the cave through a door on the south side. The mosque is entered through a domed vestibule on the west side. The prayer hall is a small squarish room with three aisles; two of them have groin-vaulted ceilings, while the middle one is topped with a dome. The mihrab is surrounded by an arch with squinches that seem to imitate Artukid style.
The minaret is a square tower that is visually divided into thirds by three molded cornices, one of which is at the very top. The upper level has pairs of mullioned windows on all four sides. The tops of the windows form horseshoe-shaped arches.
The medrese cells, now used as a Qur'an school, are elevated from the surrounding pavement. The cells are fronted by a portico with simple rounded arches. A balustrade with zigzag posts runs along the front of the portico. At the north-west corner of the pool is a five-sided room that projects out into the water on three sides. A restoration in the late 20th century extended the balustrade onto the top of the five-sided room.
1Ayn Zeliha The pool of Ayn Zeliha, named after Nimrod's daughter, is located south of the main pool. It is shaded by trees and surrounded by cafés.
1Haleplibahçe museum complex The Haleplibahçe museum complex (Turkish: Haleplibahçe Müze Kompleksi) is located near Balıklıgöl and occupies a 40-hectare area. It consists of two museums: the Şanlıurfa Museum and the Haleplibahçe Mosaic Museum. The Şanlıurfa Museum was originally founded in 1965 and moved to its present location in 2015. With over 34,000 square meters of indoor space, it is the largest museum in Turkey. It has 14 exhibition halls and 33 animation areas and houses some 10,000 artefacts from the Paleolithic through Islamic times. This includes finds from Göbekli Tepe, Harran, and the areas now inundated by the Atatürk Dam. As for the Haleplibahçe Mosaic Museum, it was built in situ on the top of where the Haleplibahçe mosaics were originally found. Among the mosaics on display here is the oldest known mosaic to depict the Amazons.
1Kızılkoyun necropolis Just to the east of the Haleplibahçe museum complex is the Kızıllkoyun necropolis, where at least 75 rock-cut cave tombs were carved into a limestone ridge during the Roman period, in the 3rd and 4th centuries. The tombs vary in size and design based on the socioeconomic status of their occupants, ranging from one to three rooms and some having special front entrances. Some of the tombs were also decorated with statues and mosaics.
In the 1970s, the Kızılkoyun area became occupied by informal squatter housing, which was later legitmized through construction amnesty in the 1980s. Nearby sites were designated as protected monuments, but the Kızılkoyun necropolis was not designated as anything until 2008 when it was declared as a second-degree archaeological site. In 2012, the necropolis was officially registered as the Yenimahalle Urban Archaeological Site, and 387 houses and workplaces on the premises were demolished. A new landscaping project was commenced in 2015.
1Ulu Cami The 12th-century Ulu Cami, or congregational mosque, was probably built on the site of an earlier Christian church, in this case possibly one dedicated to St. Stephen. The exact circumstances of the mosque's foundation are unknown — it may represent an expansion of an earlier mosque,[note 3] or it may have been a new mosque foundation. The courtyard's west and east walls contain some ancient masonry. Several arches on the north wall were either part of an arcade in the old church or part of an associated building. The Ulu Cami is located on Divan Caddesi.
The courtyard itself is unusually elongated north-south. The main prayer hall is on the south side of the complex, while the minaret is at the north-east corner. A medrese is in the south-east corner, unusually projecting outward. The courtyard itself is slightly elevated and has two cemetery areas, both shaded by cypress trees.
The main prayer hall was probably built sometime after Nur ad-Din Zengi captured the city in 1146. It was later renovated in 1779. The interior consists of three long east-west aisles separated by low, thick columns. Each aisle has cross-vaulted ceilings. The mihrab and the dome above it are slightly off-center. The whole north face of the structure is fronted by a portico, which is possibly a later addition to the structure. Its ceiling is also cross-vaulted; the supporting columns are irregularly spaced.
The current medrese was built in the late 1700s on the site of an older one. The fountain at its south-east corner now contains an inscription commemorating the old medrese's construction in 1191, when the Ayyubids were ruling Urfa. Its construction was begun one Umar ibn Shahan ibn Ayyub, who may have been Saladin's cousin. Construction was finished under Umar's son Muhammad. This inscription used to be on the medrese's north wall, but was apparently moved to the fountain sometime after 1930.
The current medrese has its own mini-courtyard and consists of four rooms on the courtyard's south side plus a two-story building on the west side. This whole complex is now used as a school.
The minaret, like the main prayer hall, was probably built in the mid-12th century. It is a tall eight-sided tower with large windows on each side of the top floor, giving a commanding view of the city. These windows start at floor level and are partly walled up to protect the muezzin or others from falling. Other windows, much smaller and narrower, are arranged in vertical rows on the north, west, south, and east faces. The top floor is reached by a circular staircase. The minaret's roof was originally flat, but there is now a cube-shaped addition on top, crowned by a lead cupola and with a clock on each side.
An archaeological excavation in 1979 discovered a corridor underneath the Ulu Cami's prayer hall, beginning at its south face and extending north for about 6 or 7 meters before hitting a wall. The excavators hypothesized that this corridor would have then split into two parts and connected either to the old church's cellar or to underground catacombs.
1Kapalı Çarşı The Kapalı Çarşı is a "maze-like" covered bazaar area at the south end of Divan Caddesi, not far from Balıklıgöl. Its narrow streets are lined with shops and stalls selling a wide variety of goods: herbs and spices, many different types of fabric, "green Diyarbakır tobacco by the kilo", even guns. Household appliances are sometimes auctioned off here as well. The bazaar is covered are because of the climate: during the summer, the covers allow people to stay cool in the shade, while in winter they offer a bit of warmth.
The Kapalı Çarşı is one of the busiest shopping areas in the city; it serves locals and tourists as well as people coming from the surrounding villages to buy things in the city. It remains popular in spite of the increasing number of shopping malls in the city.
The Kapalı Çarşı is the most traditional marketplace in Urfa. Merchants gather and take part in a traditional prayer for "good and fruitful gain" two days per week when they open their shops as part of a "traders' prayer" that dates back to the culture of the Ahi guilds. Traditional artisans make goods for sale here, including shoes, saddles, and metal goods.
Among the bazaars located within the area: Kazaz (Bedesten), Sipahi Pazarı, Kınacı Pazarı, Bakırcılar Çarşısı (coppersmiths' market), Eskici Pazarı, Kuyumcular Çarşısı (jewellers' market), Kunduracılar Pazarı (shoemakers' market). The coppersmiths' bazaar is located south of the bedesten, along with the Haci Kamil Hanı, while the Sipahi Pazarı and the Hüseyniye bazaar are located further west. In the coppersmiths' and tin-beaters' quarter, there is "a vaulted street with shops down either side".
1Gümrük Hanı The Gümrük Hanı, or "customs caravanserai", is located in the middle of the Kapalı Çarşı. Variously dated to the late 16th century or the 18th or 19th centuries, it is a two-story building arranged around "a more or less square courtyard". The ground floor is occupied by shops opening up onto the courtyard. Above the shops on the upper level is a portico with access to rooms now used as private apartments. The shady courtyard is filled with tables belonging to teahouses and watch repairers. Just next door to the Gümrük Hanı is a bedestan.
1Bedesten One of the most important markets in the Kapalı Çarşı is the bedesten, which is located just south of the Gümrük Hanı. Originally built in 1562, it is mentioned as "bezzazistan" in the waqf of Rızvan Ahmet Paşa in 1740. It was restored in 1998 by the Şanlıurfa Culture, Art, and Research Foundation (ŞURKAV). It has gates to 4 surrounding bazaars.
1Tabakhane Cami The Tabakhane Cami, or "dyehouse mosque", dates from the 1700s or early 1800s. Its minaret, however, may be older – perhaps from the 15th or 16th centuries. The mosque's main prayer hall goes east-west, with a groin-vaulted portico on the north side. A rectangular courtyard surrounded by a high wall extends to the north. The main entrance to the whole complex is at the north end of the courtyard's west side, where there is a high and deep porch covered by a high semi-dome. The minaret is located at the east end of the portico; the şerefe at the top features carved designs interspersed with turquoise tiles.
1Kara Meydanı The Kara Meydanı is located at the north end of Divan Caddesi; north of here it becomes Sarayönü Caddesi. The 19th-century Yusuf Paşa Cami is located here, as is the old Haci Hafiz Efendi house, which is now restored and turned into an art gallery.
1Akabe recreation area The Akabe recreation area (Akabe Mesire alanı), in Batıkent mahalle, covers 100,00 square meters and was implemented by the Metropolitan Municipality under mayor Zeynel Abidin Beyazgül under the slogan "a greener Şanlıurfa" ("Daha yeşil bir Şanlıurfa"); work completed as of December 2022. It has sports fields, playgrounds, walking trails, and an archery range.
1Economy The average per capita income in Urfa is $4,400 USD per year. Unemployment in Urfa is 18%, among young people it is 35%. Urfa is a centre of footwear production in the region, and around 5,000 people are employed in this sector. The Istanbul-based shoe retailer FLO, owned by the Ziylan Group, opened a shoe factory in Urfa in 2012. As of 2018, this factory employed 900 people and was the largest footwear factory in the region, producing 1.8 million pairs of shoes per year. FLO was planning to open a second factory, employing 1,500 more people, in the city in early 2019. According to the province governor Abdullah Erin, there were also plans to open some 13 more shoe factories in the Organized Industrial Zone by 2023, employing as many as 20,000 people and producing 30 million pairs of shoes annually.
Urfa is a major producer of pistachio nuts, with 29.7 million trees in the whole province producing 38,576 tons of pistachios in 2021. However, most processing is done in Gaziantep, which is the other main pistachio producer in Turkey. Both cities' pistachios have geographical indications under different names for different cultivars, with Urfa's officially known as the "Urfa flax village pistachio" (Urfa keten köyneği fıstığı).
1Handicrafts Urfa has a rich tradition of handicrafts: coppersmiths, furriers, weavers and carpetmakers, felt makers, saddle makers, and jewelers all form part of this tradition. Historically, the various trades had their own bazaars where artisans sold their wares. In the 21st century, however, these handicrafts have been on the decline, and new generations are generally not learning them.
Coppersmithing is relatively prosperous among Urfa's handicrafts, although demand has fallen in favor of more contemporary decor. Many coppersmiths have left the profession altogether, and those who remain often face declining incomes. Jewelry making also remains a thriving business; its continued importance is partly because of traditional wedding customs that are still practiced. The making of prayer beads (tespih) also continues in Urfa, with craftsmen working particularly around the Gümrük Han and the shopping areas around Balıklıgöl. Woodcarvers, although few in number, are still in demand for restoration of old buildings. A few furriers and saddle makers also continue to ply their trades in the city.
Artisanal leather tanning, on the other hand, is no longer practiced in Urfa, and new apprentices are not taught. Professionals now send the hides to industrial-scale leather factories instead. Commercial production of handmade embroidery has also ceased in Urfa, although many women continue the craft for dowry purposes.
1Limestone quarrying There is an abundance of limestone in the Urfa area, and it has been quarried extensively since ancient times for use as a building material.: , 5–7 This limestone, known as Urfa limestone, was mostly deposited in Eocene through Miocene times (about 56-5 million years ago). It has a light, whitish-yellow ochre color.: , 10 When freshly extracted from the quarry and still rather moist, Urfa limestone is relatively soft and can easily be cut with a handheld saw. Once exposed to the atmosphere, though, its surface gradually hardens so that it makes a suitably strong building material.
Urfa limestone has been quarried for human use since at least the Neolithic period: it was the main building material used at Göbekli Tepe, 12,000 years ago, and the prehistoric quarries and workshops at Göbekli Tepe are among the oldest in the world.: , 8 On the southern edge of the rocky plateau, there are also traces of quarries dating back to ancient Roman times. Many old quarries in the area were also dug underground, forming artificial caves. The oldest of this type is the massive 4-story Basda quarry, although its precise age is unknown.
A number of active limestone quarries exist today in the Urfa area. Much of the quarrying is done just west of the city, around the Evren Industrial Estate. Şanlıurfa province's total limestone reserves amount to 62.2 million tons, and its industry has an annual processing capacity of 31,680 tons. Many of the stone blocks quarried from the Urfa area are sent to Mardin and Midyat for processing.
Before the introduction of reinforced concrete structures, Urfa limestone was the main building material used for "major" construction projects in the area. Many historical structures in the city were built with this limestone: the castle and city walls, the Ulu Cami, the Halil ür-Rahman and Rızvaniye mosques, and the Gümrük Hanı, as well as many of the old 18th- and 19th-century houses in the old town.: , 5 It is also used in many contemporary buildings, such as the Mevlana mosque complex. Especially since the start of the GAP in the 1980s, regional demand for Urfa limestone as a construction material has been increasing, particularly since it is cheaper than reinforced concrete. It is also commonly used in combination with other building materials, such as aerated concrete and pumice blocks. In addition to being used as a building block, Urfa limestone is also used for cladding on the outside of walls, as well as decorative finishings on indoor walls. Its use is mostly regional; it is not used much outside the area.
1Organized Industrial Zone The Organized Industrial Zone (Turkish: Organize Sanayi Bölgesi) is located 17 km west of central Urfa on the highway to Gaziantep. Construction started in 1991. The site consists of three areas covering over 1,700 hectares as of 2018. It is home to about 250 companies and employs about 13,000 people.
1Evren Industrial Estate The Evren Industrial Estate (Turkish: Evren Sanayi Sitesi) is a Small Industrial Site located about 7 km west of central Urfa on the highway to Gaziantep. It covers about 140 hectares and is home to about 1500 businesses. It became operational in 1994. Urfa's limestone quarries are also clustered around here.
1Cuisine As the city of Urfa is deeply rooted in history, so its unique cuisine is an amalgamation of the cuisines of the many civilizations that have ruled in Urfa. It is widely believed that Urfa is the birthplace of many dishes, including Çiğ köfte, that according to the legend, was crafted by the Prophet Abraham from ingredients he had at hand. Another legend attributes its creation to a nameless hunter's wife who, when her husband brought home a gazelle he'd killed, was unable to find firewood to cook it with because Nimrod had gathered all the wood for throwing Abraham into the fire. She improvised and took some lean meat from the gazelle's thigh, crushed it up, and mixed it with bulgur, red pepper, and salt, and then added parsley and green onions and served it raw.
Meat-based dishes are a staple of everyday meals in Urfa. There is a local saying, "There is no trouble where meat comes in" (Turkish: et giren yere dert girmez). Foods like lahmacun and kebab are consumed daily by many people. Ciğer kebabı, or liver kebab, is especially popular among poorer Urfalis, since liver is usually a relatively cheap meat. Liver kebab is popularly eaten for either breakfast, lunch, or dinner.
The walnut-stuffed Turkish dessert crepe (called şıllık) is a regional specialty. According to legend, its sweet syrup was first made using molasses from the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
Urfa's local variety of cheese, known as "Urfa cheese" (Turkish: Urfa peyniri), is similar to cheeses from other nearby cities, such as Diyarbakır, Maraş, and Gaziantep. Although there is no single standardized way of producing it, it is typically made from sheep or goat milk and aged for anywhere from 3 to 7 months.
Some other specialties of Urfali cuisine include şöşbörek, tirit (a meal which, according to the medieval historian al-Tabari, was first made by the prophet Abraham), the appetizer "içli köfte", the dessert zerde, the beverage Urfa biyanbalısı, the biscuit külünçe, the soup lebeni çorbası, and a number of other dishes: Urfa ekşilisi, frenk çömleği, haşhaş kebabı, kazan kebabı, keme boranısı, kıymalı söğürme, Urfa kıymalısı, Urfa miftahi tas kebabı, pancar boranısı, eggplant kebab, saç kavurma, onion kebab, su kabağı yemeği, egg meatballs (yumurtalı köfte), üzmeli pilav, and isot pot (isot çömleği).
The Şanlıurfa Traditional Cuisine Museum (Şanlıurfa Geleneksel Mutfak Müzesi), located in the old Hacıbanlar house, is dedicated to the local cuisine.
1Hospitality Urfali society traditionally places a great value on hospitality, and inviting guests over and sharing food with them has a special importance. Locals attribute this to the prophet Abraham, who according to legend never dined alone — he always had guests over to share his meals with. The locally common epithet "Halil İbrahim Sofrası" ("the tablecloth-like") depicts this characterization.
1Sıra night Although not strictly unique to Urfa, the Sıra night is a custom strongly associated with Urfa. A Sıra night is an evening gathering of male friends at the host's house, where the participants dine and converse together.
Çiğ köfte typically forms the main course of these meals, which typically begin with a retelling of the dish's legendary origins.
1Literature Urfa has a long history of literature, going back to early Christian writers such as Bardaisan and Ibas of Edessa. A prominent medieval writer from Urfa was the 9th century Arabic author al-Ruhawi, whose Adab al-Tabib covered the topic of medical ethics. Later, from the 1600s to the 20th century, divan poetry became popular in Urfa. The popularity of divan poetry in Urfa is unusual because, by the 1600s, Urfa was not a major centre of learning that would typically be expected to produce a lot of poetry. In all, 130 different Urfali poets are known from this period. A few of them are Nâbî, Ömer Nüzhet, Admî, Fehim, Hikmet, Şevket, Sakıb, and Emin. Many of them were Sufis, affiliated with orders like the Bektashis, Mevlevis, Naqshbandis, Qadiris, and Rifa'is; they gathered in places like the Hasanpaşa Medrese, the İhlasiye Medrese, the Hasan Paşa Medrese, the Sakıbiye Tekke, the Halil’ür Rahman Medrese, the Rızvaniye Medrese, the Dabbakhane Medrese, and the Eyyübî Medrese. Urfali divan poets almost exclusively used the ghazala form, with almost no known examples of the qasida.
In modern times, some of the prominent authors based in Urfa include A. Rezzak Elçi, Abdurrahman Karakaş, Ali Fuat Bilkan, Arif İnan, Bekir Urfalı, Celal Oymak, Cuma Ağaç, Faruk Habiboğlu, Fedli Keser, Fuat Rastgeldi, Halil Güçlü, Hanifi Düşmez, Hicri İzgören, Hüseyin Baykuş, H. Sami Nacar, İ. Halil Aycan, İ. Halil Baran, İbrahim Tezölmez, Kemal Oğuzlu, Mehmet Adil Oymak, Mehmet Bayırhan, Mehmet Emin Ercan, Mehmet Hazar, Mehmet Kurtoğlu, Meral Dalaman, Misbah Hicri, Mustafa Dişli, Müslüm Akalın, Müslüm Yücel, Necati Siyahkan, Necdet Karasevda, Nejat Karagöz, Osman Erkan, Osman Güzelgöz, Sabri Çepik, Serhat Sever, Seyyit Ahmet Kaya, Siraç Suman, Şükrü Alğın, Veysel Polat, Suut Kemal Yetkin, Mustafa Yazgan, Bekir Yıldız, and Mustafa Acar. There have also been authors who were born in Urfa but have worked elsewhere; they include Yılmaz Karakoyunlu, Aysel Özakın, Aydın Hatipoğlu, Akif İnan, Ragıp Karcı, İhsan Sezal, Atilla Maraş, Abdülkadir Karahan, Günel Altıntaş, and Sedat Şanver.
1Traditional house architecture Urfa's old town has many old courtyard houses; many were built during a construction boom in the 19th century. A typical Urfa courtyard house is centered around a high-walled courtyard that is closed to the street.: , 6 Facing the courtyard is a porticoed antechamber covered by a roof and partially surrounded by three walls. In Urfa, the name for this space is mastaba; elsewhere, the more general term is iwan. Other typical rooms include bedrooms, a kitchen (tandir), a sitting room, or a water closet. There is also a semi-basement called the zerzembe, which is used for winter food storage and is practically omnipresent in traditional Turkish homes in regions with hot climates. The house as a whole, with its courtyard, mastaba, and other rooms, forms one integrated living space rather than each room being its own "isolated, independent" space.
Together, the courtyard and mastaba form the most important part of the house. Except in very cold weather, most family activities would traditionally take place here. In particular, the courtyard is where women would traditionally gather to visit with each other during the day, while doing household tasks like lacework, knitting, or sewing, and moving about to whichever part of the courtyard was shaded. The courtyard's importance is such that in Turkish it is often called hayat — literally, "life". For privacy, the courtyard is surrounded by high walls to prevent prevent passersby from looking in from the street. For the same reason, it is not entered directly from the street; instead, the front door leads to the dehliz, or entrance hall, where a second door opens onto the courtyard. Inside the courtyard, there is often a fountain and small garden. As for the mastaba, it is usually the grandest and most architecturally elaborate part of the house. It is an attractive place for people to sit because, in Urfa's hot climate, it remains relatively cool (so it is also called the "summer mastaba").
Traditional Urfa courtyard houses are often two-story. Rooms on the ground floor are called kab, after a regional word meaning "arch vault". Rooms on the upper floor are called çardak, or "arbor", and all open onto the gezenek, an open terrace accessed by stairs from the courtyard.: , 9 Each room is internally divided into two parts: the entry space, called the gedemeç or papuçluk, and the main room space. Shoes must be removed in the gedemeç before proceeding to the main area. The main area is typically raised by about 20–30 cm above the gedemeç.
Urfa gets very hot in the summer, and it is often cooler to sleep on the roof than in the house. As a result, the roof is typically crowned by a parapet built high enough to protect the family's privacy.
An important consideration in domestic architecture is mahremiyat, which could roughly be translated into English as "privacy" or "intimacy" but which carries stronger implications. This concept is especially important when it comes to relations between men and women – outside the extended family, interaction between men and women is restricted. As a result, traditional Urfa houses are constructed in ways to prevent men outside from viewing the women of the household.: 0 For example, doors facing each other, windows facing the street, and significant differences in roof elevation are all avoided.
In wealthier households, the house would be built with separate haremlik and selamlik quarters; poorer and middle-class houses would not have this luxury. The haremlik is where the family lives; the selamlik is a "semi-public" space used to host male guests and shelter animals. The haremlik is generally larger and "better equipped" than the selamlik, since it is where most everyday family life is conducted. In larger houses, the selamlik may have its own courtyard, smaller than the haremlik's. The selamlik never has a second story since that would allow male visitors to see into the haremlik courtyard from above. In some houses there is a second floor above the selamlik, but it belongs to the haremlik and can only be accessed through that part of the house. In larger homes, the selamlik may also have its own separate entrance.
These courtyard houses are often built facing south, as this is the qibla direction here. Their water closets are typically tucked out of the way of the kitchen and oriented so that when they are used, a person's intimate parts on either the front or back are not facing the qibla.
Some distinct features of Urfa houses are separate summer and winter porticos (mastabas), microclimatic features to control heat, the multifunctionality of all the spaces, the fact that they can be used for daytime or nighttime activities, and the fact that men and women use the same areas so the house is not generally constructed with separate quarters for men and women.
1Local Turkish dialect The Turkish spoken in Urfa has some features in common with the variety of Iraqi Turkmen spoken in Kirkuk, as well as some features owed to Arabic influence. For example, the Arabic sounds 'ayn, ghayn, and qāf are pronounced the same in Urfa as they are in Arabic, which is not done in standard Turkish.
As another example, Urfa Turkish has somewhat irregular vowel harmony compared to standard Turkish due to influence from Arabic. For example, standard Turkish has some words that do not conform to the usual vowel harmony patterns, such as elma ("apple") or anne ("mother"). In Urfa pronunciation, these words are regularized to follow vowel harmony — for the examples given, they become alma and ana, respectively. However, the reverse is always true — vowel harmony in certain other standard Turkish words gets broken in Urfa speech. For example, kebap becomes kübap and hamam becomes hemam in Urfa pronunciation. These shifts do not seem to follow any particular pattern.
The present-tense suffix -yor is contracted to -y in Urfa Turkish. For example, istiyorum ("I want") becomes istiyem. There are also other miscellaneous cases of sounds being elided in certain words: for example, standard Turkish avukat ("lawyer") becomes abkat in Urfa pronunciation, dakika ("minute") becomes dekke, and mahalle ("neighborhood") becomes mehle.
In some words, sounds are epenthesized (added to): for example, standard Turkish fırsat ("opportunity") becomes fırsant in Urfa pronunciation, gibi ("like, such as") becomes gibin, and elbet ("of course") becomes helbet.
1Harran University Harran University was established in Urfa in 1992 as an amalgamation of several different faculties that had previously been attached to two different universities. The first of these was the Vocational School, which had been established in 1976 as a subordinate of Dicle University in Diyarbakır and was the first institute of higher learning in Urfa. Also attached to Dicle University were the Faculty of Agriculture (established in 1978) and the Faculty of Engineering (established in 1984). Gaziantep University had also established a Faculty of Theology in Urfa in 1988. With the foundation of Harran University, these departments were all brought together under a single organization. Several new faculties were also created at the same time: the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the Faculty of Medicine, the Institute of Social Sciences, and the Institute of Science and Health Sciences.
Since 1992, a number of additional departments have been added to the university. It now comprsises 14 faculties, 4 "schools" (Turkish: Yüksekokul), 3 institutes, and 13 vocational schools. The Şanlıurfa Vocational School was split in two in 2011, one focusing on technical sciences and the other focusing on social sciences. The other vocational schools under the university's rectorate are all located in other towns, as are the Siverek Faculty of Applied Sciences and the Viranşehir School of Health. Also under the university's banner is the State Conservatory, which was established in 2011.
1Mekteb-i Sanayi By 1906, the presence of a vocational school in Urfa called the Mekteb-i Sanayi is attested. It was used as a hospital for wounded fighters during the Turkish War of Independence. This school stayed open after the war and is attested again in 1927, by then under the name of Urfa Male Industry School (Urfa Erkek Sanayi Mektebi). This school's building was demolished in the late 1930s and the Halkevi building was built on its site.
1Urfa Girls' Institute The Urfa Girls' Institute (Turkish: Urfa Kız Enstıtüsü), which opened in 1942, was an early vocational school teaching practical trades and general subjects to girls and young women. Its students were girls from ages 12 to 17 who had graduated primary school (up to 19 for specialized classes). The curriculum covered five years and was divided into two levels: the first three grades were secondary-level, general-knowledge courses for primary school graduates; while the last two were post-secondary-level and specifically for technical education. The general education classes included subjects such as science, mathematics, history, geography, Turkish, French, bookkeeping, physical education, and music. Once the student completed these three years, she was considered a secondary school graduate and could proceed to the two years of post-secondary education. This was also open to students who had completed secondary school elsewhere. The main specialized branches were sewing and fashion; individual classes also included artificial flowers, embroidery, childcare and health information, cooking, and housekeeping.
At the end of every academic year, there was an exhibition featuring the students' work, including sewing, embroidery, dresses and other clothes, hats, artificial flowers, and painting.: , 35 Journalist Ekrem Erden wrote about one exhibition in 1954 which was visited by 1500 people a day and featured dresses, hats, coats, men's and women's shirts, blouses, nightgowns, and pajamas. During the school year the school also put on fashion shows also featuring students' creations. The schools would also accept orders from customers as part of their practical lesson plans, and then give students a share of the profits; this was to help accustom them to business life and also to provide them with some money as well. The teachers were mostly female; there were only a handful of male teachers.
The Girls' Institute also had an evening school, which was open to women up to the age of 45, regardless of educational background; they attended classes once or twice per week, with 6 hours of classes per week in total. Students between the ages of 17 and 25 formed the single largest student demographic at the evening school, but younger and older students were also not uncommon.: 4
When the Girls' Institute first opened in 1942, there was no separate building for it; the lessons were held at the İnönü Primary School in the meantime. The school's first academic year was 1942–43 and there were 12 students (8 secondary and 4 post-secondary) along with 26 evening school students. According to Necla Alpan, one of the school's early students, this low number was because of the societal prejudice against sending girls to school.: 0 The journalist and author Ahmet Naci İpek, who was a primary school student at the time, later recalled that many of the fathers were forbidding and did not want their daughters to attend school, saying things like "What will happen if a girl reads?" On the other hand, he also recalled that many of the mothers, who had been confined to domestic life, were enthusiastic about the school's opening and hoped their daughters could gain knowledge and independence, and pushed back against their husbands' reluctance. A local newspaper article from February 1947 wrote that teachers were disappointed by the low number of students: from Urfa's population of about 40,000 at the time, the paper estimated that one could expect some 300–400 students at the Girls' Institute, but just 67 girls actually attended the school for the 1946–47 academic year. The paper attributed this to people not wanting to send their daughters to school.
The Girls' Institute program continued until the 1974–75 academic year, when they were reworked into the Girls' Vocational High School (Turkish: Kız Meslek Lisesi). The archive of the Urfa Girls' Institute is now in the archive of the Bahçelievler Vocational and Technical Anatolian School (Bahçelievler Mesleki ve Teknik Anadolu Lisesi).
1Urfa Institute of Art for Boys The boys' equivalent to the Girls' Institute was Urfa Institute of Art for Boys (Turkish: Urfa Erkek Sanat Enstıtüsü), which provided vocational education to boys aged 12 to 17. The objective was to teach them the skills needed to become skilled workers and artisans.
The Institute had three main branches: woodworking, blacksmithing, and leveling. Other subjects were also taught at the school, including Turkish, citizenship, history, geography, mathematics, physics, "general technology", chemistry, "collective courses", physical education, health science, decorative painting, and "applied mechanics and tools". Like other Institutes in Turkey, education at the Urfa Institute of Art for Boys was divided into two phases: the Male Middle Art School, covering the first three years and the Male Art Institute, covering the last two years.: , 93 After completing the first three years, students had to pass an exam in order to receive a diploma as a graduate of the Male Middle Art School. If they wished to continue their education and training, they could then move on to the Male Art Institute. Again, after completing this period there was an exam that students had to pass in order to receive a diploma as a graduate of the Urfa Male Art Institute.
The institute's students also took part in performing arts like music and theatre, and gave performances in front of audiences. These were done for various reasons, including social activities among students, as well as helping students who were struggling financially.
In the 1940s, there was a general opening of Art Schools for Boys in Turkey. The Urfa Institute of Art for Boys opened on 30 October 1944, as the Urfa Male Middle Art School (Turkish: Urfa Erkek Orta Sanat Okulu), during a general wave of opening vocational schools for boys in Turkey in the 1940s. The school's opening was presided over by Urfa governor Feyyaz Bosut. For the 1947–48 academic year, the school was expanded into the Male Art Institute with the addition of "circuit classes".
Urfa was severely lacking in educational institutions during this period, and the opening of the Institute helped fill that need. At the time of its opening in 1944, there was only one other secondary school in the city. However, Turkey was under the wartime economy of World War II at the time, and lingering economic effects continued even after the war's end in 1945. The school's expansion into the Male Art Institute in 1947 was hindered by a lack of funds. In 1954, newspaper columnist Ekrem Erden wrote that the school was still unable to expand and was having tool shortages. As late as 1958, the school's carpentry workshop was still unfinished, forcing students to work in the halls.
Today, the school's archive is part of the Urfa Vocational and Technical Anatolian High School (Urfa Mesleki ve Teknik Anadolu Lisesi)'s archive.
1Old state hospital The old state hospital in Urfa was established by Ethem Bey in 1903 and became a public hospital in 1943. This hospital eventually came to comprise four different buildings, serving as the A, B, C, and D blocks. The A-block building, which was three stories tall, opened in 1962 and was originally dedicated to treatment of tuberculosis. The B-block building opened in 1972 and had 200 beds. The D block was for emergency care. Demolition of the old state hospital, which was located in Atatürk mahalle of Haliliye district, was completed in 2022. At the time of the demolition, the provincial health directorate was planning to build a new 150-bed children's hospital on the site.
1Şanlıurfa Balıklıgöl State Hospital The Şanlıurfa Balıklıgöl State Hospital (Şanlıurfa Balıklıgöl Devlet Hastanesi) was established in 1963 as a "Health Station" (Sağlık İstasyonu), and then became a dispensary in 1975. In July 1983, it became the Şanlıurfa SSK Hastanesi and was operating as an inpatient facility with 150 beds. In addition, a 5-story outpatient department building began construction in 1991 and then became operational in 1994. It was renamed in 2005 to its current name.
1Şanlıurfa Training and Research Hospital The Training and Research Hospital (Şanlıurfa Eğitim Ve Araştırma Hastanesi) was established in 1973 with 125 beds. Originally, it was a branch hospital under the State Hospital, until 1984. From 1984 until 2004, it was a gynecology and pediatric hospital, and in 2004 it was split in two: the gynecology and obstetric hospital, which remained in the same building, and the pediatric hospital, which moved into the old State Hospital building. In 2016, the two branch hospitals were combined together into the Training and Research Hospital in the current building due to a shortage of beds. The current building, as of 2019, covers over 100,000 square meters and has 400 patient rooms (with separate beds and restrooms), 18 operating rooms (2 of which are set aside for "maternity emergencies"), a 180-person conference hall, and an 80-person training hall, as well as a helipad and a parking lot with 1,200 spaces. The hospital covers gynecology, pediatric, and adult healthcare.
1Mehmet Akif İnan Training and Research Hospital The Mehmet Akif İnan Training and Research Hospital (Mehmet Akif İnan Eğitim ve Araştırma Hastanesi) opened in 2004 and handles as many as 3,500 to 6,000 patient applicants per day. It has 500 beds (rooms have 1, 2, or 3 beds, as well as their own restrooms) and a conference hall that can seat 156 people. There is a blood centre, a dialysis unit, and an intensive care unit, as well as a physical therapy unit for outpatients.
1Transport Şanlıurfa GAP Airport is located about 34 km (21 mi) north-east of the city and has direct flights to Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir. The main highway from Gaziantep to Diyarbakır now bypasses Urfa on the northwest.
Construction of the first phase of a planned four-route, 78 km network of trolleybus lines began in late 2017, and the first of 10 bi-articulated trolleybuses built by manufacturer Bozankaya was received in September 2018. However, work on additional vehicles was suspended because of various problems, and in 2020 the single vehicle delivered in 2018 remained the only trolleybus completed. In late 2020, the original order for 10 bi-articulated vehicles was replaced by one for 12 standard-articulated vehicles, and the first of these was delivered in April 2022. The trolleybus line opened for service on 28 April 2023, by which time six of the 12 vehicles had been received. The trolleybuses are able to operate on battery power on sections of the route that are not equipped with overhead wires, and at the time of the route's opening for service, it was unclear whether the vehicles were actually operating as trolleybuses (while in motion) along sections that do have overhead wires or, rather, only using the wiring to charge their batteries at a terminus at this stage.
1Şanlıurfa is rated E by the Global Urban Competitiveness Report (GUCR) which evaluates and ranks world cities in the context of economic competitiveness. E cities are regional gateway cities. Şanlıurfa has a population of over 1,845,667 people. Şanlıurfa also forms the centre of the wider Şanlıurfa Province which has a population of over 2,031,425 people.
To set up a UBI Lab for Şanlıurfa see: https://www.ubilabnetwork.org Twitter: https://twitter.com/UBILabNetwork
Şanlıurfa is a member of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network for Music see: https://en.unesco.org/creative-cities
Twin Towns - Sister Cities Şanlıurfa has links with:
🇪🇹 Harar, Ethiopia 🇵🇸 Hebron, PalestineUNESCO Creative Cities for Music include: 🇦🇺 Adelaide 🇰🇿 Almaty 🇵🇹 Amarante 🇮🇩 Ambon 🇳🇿 Auckland 🇧🇦 Banja Luka 🇮🇳 Benares 🇬🇼 Bissau 🇨🇴 Bogotá 🇮🇹 Bologna 🇮🇹 Bolzano 🇨🇬 Brazzaville 🇨🇿 Brno 🇵🇱 Bydgoszcz 🇻🇪 Caracas 🇮🇳 Chennai 🇻🇳 Da Lat 🇲🇦 Essaouira 🇨🇱 Frutillar 🇧🇪 Ghent 🏴 Glasgow 🇮🇳 Gwalior 🇯🇵 Hamamatsu 🇩🇪 Hannover 🇨🇺 Havana 🇵🇹 Idanha-a-Nova 🇲🇾 Ipoh 🇺🇸 Kansas City 🇵🇱 Katowice 🇷🇺 Kazan 🇯🇲 Kingston 🇹🇷 Kırşehir 🇵🇹 Leiria 🏴 Liverpool 🇪🇸 Lliria 🇩🇪 Mannheim 🇫🇷 Metz 🇲🇽 Mexicali 🇨🇭 Montreux 🇲🇽 Morelia 🇸🇪 Norrköping 🇮🇹 Pesaro 🇹🇹 Port of Spain 🇨🇻 Praia 🇵🇸 Ramallah 🇧🇷 Salvador 🇮🇷 Sanandaj 🇹🇷 Şanlıurfa 🇩🇴 Santo Domingo 🇪🇸 Seville 🇹🇭 Suphan Buri 🇰🇷 Tongyeong 🇫🇷 Toulouse 🇨🇴 Valledupar 🇨🇱 Valparaíso 🇮🇳 Varanasi 🇭🇷 Varaždin 🇷🇺 Veliky Novgorod 🇭🇺 Veszprém 🇷🇸 Vranje
🇸🇾 Al-Malikiyah 37.167
🇰🇷 Hwaseong-si 37.183
🇺🇸 Christiansburg 37.133
Locations Near: Şanlıurfa 38.7853,37.1567
🇹🇷 Harran 39.017,36.867 d: 38.2
🇸🇾 Kobanî 38.354,36.891 d: 48.4
🇸🇾 Kobane 38.354,36.891 d: 48.4
🇹🇷 Kâhta 38.617,37.767 d: 69.4
🇹🇷 Adıyaman 38.267,37.75 d: 80.3
🇸🇾 Jarabulus 38.011,36.818 d: 78.4
🇹🇷 Besni 37.85,37.683 d: 101.2
🇮🇹 Marsala 37.797,37.797 d: 112.6
Antipodal to: Şanlıurfa -141.215,-37.157
🇵🇫 Papeete -149.566,-17.537 d: 17685.4
🇦🇸 Pago Pago -170.701,-14.279 d: 16147.2
🇹🇴 Nuku'alofa -175.216,-21.136 d: 16292.1
🇼🇸 Apia -171.76,-13.833 d: 16032.4
🇺🇸 Hilo -155.089,19.725 d: 13525
🇺🇸 Maui -156.446,20.72 d: 13384.3
🇺🇸 Kahului -156.466,20.891 d: 13365.4
🇺🇸 Wailuku -156.505,20.894 d: 13364.1
🇺🇸 Maui County -156.617,20.868 d: 13364.1