Dara: The Ancient Fortress City of the Frontier
Dara, the ancient Roman-Byzantine fortress city near Mardin — built in the 6th century against Persia, with vast cisterns, a dam, rock-cut tombs, and the famous 530 AD Battle of Dara.
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The archive
The Great Mosque of Diyarbakır: Ulu Cami of Amed
The Great Mosque of Diyarbakır (Ulu Cami / Mizgefta Mezin) — one of the oldest mosques in Anatolia, in the walled old city of Amed, famous for its courtyard of reused ancient columns.
Read article →Mor Yakup: An Ancient Church at Nusaybin
The Church of Mar Jacob (Mor Yakup) at Nusaybin — one of the oldest churches in the world, founded in the early 4th century by Jacob of Nisibis and tied to the famed School of Nisibis.
Read article →Halfeti: The Sunken Town on the Euphrates
Halfeti, the half-submerged town on the Euphrates in Şanlıurfa — where a dam drowned part of the old town and a sunken minaret rises from the water, famous too for its rare black rose.
Read article →Arsameia: A Sanctuary of the Commagene Kings
Arsameia, the Commagene hilltop sanctuary near Mount Nemrut in Adıyaman — with its famous relief of a king and Heracles, a long Greek inscription, and a mysterious rock tunnel.
Read article →Balıklıgöl: The Sacred Pool of Şanlıurfa
Balıklıgöl, the sacred pool of fish in Şanlıurfa — revered in tradition as the place of the prophet Abraham, ringed by historic mosques and gardens and a major place of pilgrimage.
Read article →The Hevsel Gardens: Ancient Green by the Tigris
The Hevsel Gardens, the ancient green fields along the Tigris below the walls of Diyarbakır — cultivated for thousands of years, a haven for birds, and part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Read article →Deyrulzafaran: The Saffron Monastery of Mardin
Deyrulzafaran, the “Saffron Monastery” near Mardin — an ancient Syriac Orthodox monastery that was for centuries the seat of the patriarchs, built in golden stone on a far older sacred site.
Read article →The Cendere Bridge: A Roman Arch Near Mount Nemrut
The Cendere Bridge, a Roman stone arch in Adıyaman built nearly 1,800 years ago near Mount Nemrut — among the largest Roman arches ever raised, and still standing today.
Read article →Rumkale: The Fortress Above the Euphrates
Rumkale, the “Roman castle” on a cliff promontory above the Euphrates — a near-impregnable fortress and former Armenian church seat, now rising above a reservoir near Halfeti.
Read article →Harran: The Ancient Town of Beehive Houses
Harran, the ancient town near Şanlıurfa famed for its conical beehive houses — nearly 5,000 years old, named in the oldest scriptures, and a great centre of moon-god worship and early science.
Read article →Göbekli Tepe: The World’s Oldest Temple
Göbekli Tepe, the ~12,000-year-old temple complex near Şanlıurfa — the world’s oldest known monumental sanctuary, built by hunter-gatherers and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Read article →Akdamar Island: The Carved Church in Lake Van
The Cathedral of the Holy Cross on Akdamar Island in Lake Van — a thousand-year-old Armenian royal church famous for the vivid carved stone reliefs covering its walls.
Read article →Mardin Castle: The Eagle’s Nest Above the Plain
Mardin Castle, the ancient “Eagle’s Nest” citadel crowning the rocky summit above the old city of Mardin — a stronghold of many empires overlooking the Mesopotamian plain.
Read article →Harput Castle: The Ancient Fortress Above Elazığ
Harput Castle, the ancient “Milk Castle” crowning the old town above Elazığ — a hilltop fortress of the upper Euphrates with origins in the Iron Age and a layered history of many empires.
Read article →Çavuştepe: A Royal Fortress of Urartu
Çavuştepe, the ruined Urartian fortress and palace south-east of Van — built in the 8th century BC with temples, cisterns, and remarkably fine cut stone and inscriptions.
Read article →The Aras River: Border Stream of the Highlands
The Aras River (Çemê Aras / Araxes), a great river of the highlands flowing beneath Mount Ararat along the northern edge of the Kurdish world — a river of borders, plains, and ancient history.
Read article →Lake Van: The Great Soda Sea of the Highlands
Lake Van (Gola Wanê), the largest lake in Turkey — a great soda lake among the volcanoes of the eastern Kurdish highlands, dotted with islands and rich in ancient history from Urartu to Akdamar.
Read article →The Botan Valley: Gorge of the Bohtan Country
The Botan Valley (Çemê Bohtan), the deep river gorge of south-eastern Turkey that named the historic Kurdish emirate of Bohtan — a heartland of Kurdish culture, history, and white water.
Read article →The Erbil Citadel: The Oldest Inhabited Place on Earth
The Erbil Citadel (Qela’y Hewlêr), the great ancient tell above the city of Erbil — possibly the oldest continuously inhabited place on earth and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Read article →Lake Urmia: The Great Salt Lake
Lake Urmia, the vast salt lake of north-western Iran beside the Kurdish highlands — once among the largest in the Middle East, famous for its red waters and islands, now struggling against shrinking.
Read article →The Great Zab: River of the Kurdish Mountains
The Great Zab (Zê), a major mountain river of the Kurdish highlands — carving dramatic gorges from eastern Turkey through Iraqi Kurdistan to the Tigris, and site of the famous 750 AD Battle of the Zab.
Read article →The Karaftu Caves: An Ancient World in the Cliff
The Karaftu Caves, the ancient multi-storey rock-cut cave complex in the mountains of Kurdistan Province, Iran — carved over millennia and bearing an ancient Greek inscription.
Read article →Baba Gurgur: The Eternal Flames of Kirkuk
Baba Gurgur, the eternal natural-gas flames near Kirkuk that have burned for millennia — a place of ancient legend, and the birthplace of the great Kirkuk oilfield in 1927.
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