Hasankeyf

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Off course the GAP trip is not complete without visiting the ancient town of Hasankeyf. Most probably this will be the last time that we were able to see this town. Once the GAP project will be finalized by building the Ilisu dam, this town will be lost under the flooding water of the Tigris.

Immediately when we stepped out of the bus, the environmentalists welcomed us. They are objecting against the dam, which will be catastrophic for the old town and the environment. After getting some leaflets we entered the old town.

The local people used to live in the caves of Hasankeyf. After the government decided that in modern Turkey it can not be that people are living in caves, they moved to the houses of Hasankeyf. And soon, they have to move again due to the Ilisu dam.

Hasankeyf is not developed at all. Due to the threat of the flooding water there was no investment at all the last years.

We walked through the narrow streets and viewed the caves in the mountains and took a rest at the local tea house. After a short break we moved on to the direction of Midyat.

About Hasankeyf:

Hasankeyf is an ancient city, and has been identified with the Ilansura of the Mari Tablet. The Romans had built the Cephe fortress on the site and the city became the Kiphas fortress and a bishopric under the Byzantine Empire. It was conquered by the Arabs, in ca. 640, renamed Hisn Kayf. In the 12th century, the city was successively captured by the Artukids as their capital. During this period, Hasankeyf's golden age, the Artukids and Ayyubids built the Old Tigris Bridge, the Small Palace and the Great Palace. The infrastructure, location and significance of the city helped increase trade and made Hasankeyf a staging post on the Silk Road. The Ayyubids (descendants of Saladin) captured the city in 1232 and built the mosques that made Hasankeyf an important Islamic center.

The city was captured and sacked by the Mongols in 1260. The city would rise from its ashes though as summer homes for Ak Koyunlu emirs were built. Following the Ottoman ascendancy established by Selim I in the region in the early 16th century, the city became part of the Ottoman Empire in 1515, during Sultan Süleyman I's campaign of Irakeyn (the two Iraqs, e.g. Arabian and Persian) in 1534, at the same time as Diyarbakır, Mosul, Baghdad and Basra.

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