Urfa

The Maddrassah (theological school) of Abd a-Rahman in Urfa, Turkey. Formerly known as Urfa and Edssa, the city of Urfa, or Sanliurfa, is located in southeastern Turkey. It was once a major centre of Syrian culture, and was successively controlled by Persians, Arabs, and Ottoman Turks.

Urfa, southeastern Turkey. The city of Urfa, (also called Sanliurfa), is located in the fertile plain of upper Mesopotamia. It is known as the ‘City of Prophets’, reportedly the home of Job, Jethro, and St George, and the birthplace of Abraham. Once a centre of Syrian culture, the city was taken over by the Persians, Arabs, and Ottomans, in succession.

Capital of Urfa (Şanliurfa) province, southeast Turkey, situated about 40 km/25 mi north of the Syrian border, 160 km/100 mi southwest of Diyarbakir; population (2000) 385,600. It is the market centre of a fertile wheat-growing region, lying east of the Euphrates and south of the Atatürk Dam. According to tradition, it was the birthplace of Abraham, founder of the Jewish nation.

Abraham In a local variation of the story of Abraham, Muslim legend claims that he was catapulted into a bonfire by King Nimrod, but God turned the flames into water and the fuel into fish. The event is commemorated by the pools of Gölbaşi, located within a mosque complex, and by two columns on the citadel which represent the slingshot. The Cave of Abraham, said to be the birthplace and refuge of the prophet lies nearby.

History As Edessa, the city was capital of an independent Greek kingdom in 137 BC, and later became an important Roman outpost. It was held by the Crusaders in the 11th and 12th centuries, and renamed after being taken into the Ottoman Empire in 1637. Urfa received the epithet ‘Şanli’ in honour of its resistance to the French in 1918–20.

Local features Harran or Altinbaşak, 50 km/31 mi to the southeast, is one of the world's oldest settlements. Its mud-brick houses are constructed in a distinctive beehive shape.