Harran

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We left the city of Sanliurfa and started to head to Harran trough the fertile Harran plain. Impressive to see the landscape changing from a desert landscape to a fertile landscape.

In about one hour we arrived to Harran. The architectual remains of Harran is very impressive. We entered the area of the old domed houses. The architecture of the houses keeps the houses cool in the summer and warm in the winter. We spent more or less then two hours and continued our way to Adiyaman.

About Harran:

The Ancient Anatolian village of Harran is located in Şanlıurfa
Province, which lies in the southeast of Turkey, near the Syrian border.
The village's official name is Altınbaşak, with the district named
Harran. The city was the home of the Mesopotamian moon god Sin, under
the Assyrians, Chaldeans, and Romans.


The archaeological remains of ancient Harran still exist. Harran was a
major cultural, commercial, and religious center of the ancient world.
It was first inhabited in the 2300 BCE, as a part of the Early Bronze
Age. It was later known as Ḫarranu during Assyrian rule, but as Ḥaran
to the ancient Hebrews. it was later known as Karrai or Carrhae during
Roman times. The early Christian Empire renamed it Hellenopolis ('pagan
city'), but later turned back to Ḥarran during the Islamic conquest, to
which it remains today. Harran's earliest documents date back to 2300
BCE, on what are called the Ebla tablets, belonging to the Eblaite
kingdom. They describe an early king of Harran being married to an
Eblaite princess, Zugalum, who became the "queen of Harran". Years
later, Harran became a major Assyrian city, restored under the Assyrian
ruler Sargon II. The Hebrew Bible mentions Haran in the book of Genesis
(Genesis 12:4), with visitors including the prophet Abram (later
Abraham), his wife Sarai (later Sarah), and his nephew Lot. It was also
the birth place of Isaac's wife Rebekah, and their son Jacob moved
there after tricking his brother Esau into selling his birthright.


After the fall of Assyria, Harran became part of the Babylonian Empir,
and then later became a part of the Persian Achaemenid dynasty in the
6th century BCE. The city remained Persian until 331 BCE, when
Alexander the Great conquered the land. For 150 years, Harran
flourished, and became independent from both Persian and Seleucid kings.
The main language became Aramaic, with a majority of people becoming
Christian Assyrians.


Today, Harran is a poor village which now consists of mostly ethnic
Arabs who settled here during the 18th century during the Ottoman
Empire. Ethnic Assyrians have mostly moved from the territory, with few
Assyrians living in the area.

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