Kilis Province ( tr, Kilis ili) is a province in southern

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

, on the border with Syria. It used to be the southern part of the province of

Gaziantep Gaziantep (), previously and still informally called Aintab or Antep (), is a major city and capital of the Gaziantep Province, in the westernmost part of Turkey's Southeastern Anatolia Region and partially in the Mediterranean Region, approxi ...

and was formed in 1994. The town of

Kilis Kilis is a city in south-central Turkey, near the border with Syria, and the administrative centre of Kilis Province. History Although there aren't any definite information related to its foundation, today's Kilis mainly developed and became ...

is home to around 67% of the inhabitants of the province; the other towns and villages are very small.

History

There is evidence of human occupation from 4,000 years ago, in the Middle Bronze Age. The region has been ruled by the Hurrians, the

Assyrian Empire Assyrian may refer to: * Assyrian people, the indigenous ethnic group of Mesopotamia. * Assyria, a major Mesopotamian kingdom and empire. ** Early Assyrian Period ** Old Assyrian Period ** Middle Assyrian Empire ** Neo-Assyrian Empire * Assyr ...

, the

Hittite Empire The Hittites () were an Anatolian people who played an important role in establishing first a kingdom in Kussara (before 1750 BC), then the Kanesh or Nesha kingdom (c. 1750–1650 BC), and next an empire centered on Hattusa in north-centr ...

, the Persian Empire, the

Macedonian Empire Macedonia (; grc-gre, Μακεδονία), also called Macedon (), was an ancient kingdom on the periphery of Archaic and Classical Greece, and later the dominant state of Hellenistic Greece. The kingdom was founded and initially ruled ...

, the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post- Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediter ...

(including the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

), the Armenian Kingdom and finally by the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

. Places of historical interest include a number of burial mounds, castles and mosques. The name of Kilis is thought to be originating from two possible sources. First one the Arabic word for lime which is "Kil'seh", was shortened and became Kilis. The reason is that the soil of Kilis contains high levels of lime. Second possible source is Turkish word for church, which is "Kilise" (from Greek ''ekklesia'', εκκλησία). Around 16th century Armenian pilgrims who traveled to St. Hovhannes Monastery in Kilis, caught the attention of nearby Turkish villagers. When Turks asked Armenians where they were traveling, they replied "Kiliseye gidiyoruz, Kiliseden dönüyoruz"; translates " We are traveling back and forth to church".

Geography

Kilis is located in the southern foothills of the

Taurus Mountains The Taurus Mountains ( Turkish: ''Toros Dağları'' or ''Toroslar'') are a mountain complex in southern Turkey, separating the Mediterranean coastal region from the central Anatolian Plateau. The system extends along a curve from Lake Eğird ...

west of the Euphrates River on the northern edge of the Syria Plain. The district contains areas of good agricultural land, watered by small rivers and 68% of the land area of Kilis is planted. Almost 4% of Turkey's

grape A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus '' Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters. The cultivation of grapes began perhaps 8,000 years a ...

production comes from Kilis. Other important agricultural products are olives, fruit,

wheat Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeologi ...

barley Barley (''Hordeum vulgare''), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains, particularly in Eurasia as early as 10,000 years ago. Globally 70% of barley p ...

and

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

. A

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...

climate dominates over the region, which is around 60 to 80 km away from the sea. Winters are cool and rainy, spring and fall months warm, and summers are hot. Average winter temperatures are 4 to 7 degrees Celsius, while in summer the temperatures do not fall under 25 degrees Celsius. There is a border crossing into Syria, from where the road goes south to the Syrian city of Aleppo. Kilis is traversed by the northeasterly line of equal latitude and longitude. The province is divided into 4 districts:

Elbeyli Elbeyli, formerly Alimantar, is a town and district of Kilis Province in Turkey. Elbeyli was controlled by the Seljuk Turks between 1040 and 1157, then the Ilkhanate, and finally by the Anatolian beylik of Dulkadirids before being brought into ...

(the capital district), Musabeyli and Polateli.

Prominent citizens

* Former chief-of-staff General

Doğan Güreş Doğan Güreş (15 February 1926 – 14 October 2014) was a Turkish general and True Path Party politician. Education After he graduated from Kuleli Military High School in 1945, Güreş kept on studying at the Turkish Military Academy and acc ...

was later Member of Parliament for Kilis. * Army general İzettin İyigün was born in Kilis (1938). * Columnist and beauty contest judge

Hıncal Uluç Hıncal Uluç (1 November 1939 – 20 November 2022) was a Turkish journalist and writer. In 1980, he moved to Istanbul after signing a contract with Gelişim Publishing's owner Ercan Arıklı for publishing a magazine. Later, in 1990 following ...

was born in Kilis (1939). * Poet and veterinarian, Seyfettin Başcıllar, was born in Kilis (1930–2002).

Education

Kilis 7 Aralık University is located in Kilis and has around 8000 undergraduate and graduate students from all around the world.

References

External links