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Urfa
Urfa, officially known as Şanlıurfa () and in ancient times as Edessa, is a city in southeastern Turkey and the capital of Şanlıurfa Province. Urfa is situated on a plain about 80 km east of the Euphrates River. Its climate features extremely hot, dry summers and cool, moist winters. About northeast of the city is the famous Neolithic site of Göbekli Tepe, the world's oldest known temple, which was founded in the 10th millennium BC. The area was part of a network of the first human settlements where the agricultural revolution took place. Because of its association with Jewish, Christian, and Islamic history, and a legend according to which it was the hometown of Abraham, Urfa is nicknamed the "City of Prophets." Religion is important in Urfa. The city "has become a center of fundamentalist Islamic beliefs" and "is considered one of the most devoutly religious cities in Turkey". The city is located 30 miles from the Atatürk Dam, at the heart of the Southeast An ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Göbekli Tepe
Göbekli Tepe (, "Potbelly Hill"; known as ''Girê Mirazan'' or ''Xirabreşkê'' in Kurdish) is a Neolithic archaeological site in the Southeastern Anatolia Region of Turkey. Dated to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic, between 9500 and 8000 BCE, the site comprises a number of large circular structures supported by massive stone pillars – the world's oldest known megaliths. Many of these pillars are richly decorated with figurative anthropomorphic details, clothing, and reliefs of wild animals, providing archaeologists rare insights into prehistoric religion and the particular iconography of the period. The -high, tell also includes many smaller rectangular buildings, quarries, and stone-cut cisterns from the Neolithic, as well as some traces of activity from later periods. The site was first used at the dawn of the Southwest Asian Neolithic period, which marked the appearance of the oldest permanent human settlements anywhere in the world. Prehistorians link this Neolithic Revolu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Şanlıurfa Province
Şanlıurfa Province ( tr, Şanlıurfa ili; ku, Parêzgeha Rihayê) or simply Urfa Province is a province in southeastern Turkey. The city of Şanlıurfa is the capital of the province which bears its name. The population is 1,845,667 (2014). The province is considered part of Turkish Kurdistan and has a Kurdish majority with a significant Arab and Turkish minority. Districts Şanlıurfa province is divided into 13 districts (capital district in bold): * Urfa (Central district. In 2014 it was split into three districts: Eyyübiye, Haliliye and Karaköprü.) * Akçakale * Birecik * Bozova * Ceylanpınar * Halfeti * Harran * Hilvan * Siverek * Suruç * Viranşehir Geography Area 18,584 km2 (7,173 sq. miles), the largest province of Southeast Anatolia with: * Adıyaman to the north; * Syria to the south; * Mardin and Diyarbakır to the east; * Gaziantep to the west; Şanlıurfa includes several major components of the Southeastern Anatolia Project (in Turkis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edessa
Edessa (; grc, Ἔδεσσα, Édessa) was an ancient city (''polis'') in Upper Mesopotamia, founded during the Hellenistic period by King Seleucus I Nicator (), founder of the Seleucid Empire. It later became capital of the Kingdom of Osroene, and continued as capital of the Roman province of Osroene. In Late Antiquity, it became a prominent center of Christian learning and seat of the Catechetical School of Edessa. During the Crusades, it was the capital of the County of Edessa. The city was situated on the banks of the Daysan River (; ), a tributary of the Khabur, and was defended by Şanlıurfa Castle, the high central citadel. Ancient Edessa is the predecessor of modern Urfa ( tr, Şanlıurfa; ku, Riha; ar, الرُّهَا, ar-Ruhā; hy, Ուռհա, Urha), in the Şanlıurfa Province, Turkey. Modern names of the city are likely derived from Urhay or Orhay ( syc, ܐܘܪܗܝ, ʾŪrhāy / ʾŌrhāy), the site's Syriac name before the re-foundation of the settle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harran
Harran (), historically known as Carrhae ( el, Kάρραι, Kárrhai), is a rural town and district of the Şanlıurfa Province in southeastern Turkey, approximately 40 kilometres (25 miles) southeast of Urfa and 20 kilometers from the border crossing with Syria at Akçakale. Harran was founded at some point between the 25th and 20th centuries BC as a merchant colony by Sumerian traders from Ur. Over the course of its early history, Harran rapidly grew into a major Mesopotamian cultural, commercial and religious center. It was made a religiously and politically influential city through its association with the moon-god Sin; many prominent Mesopotamian rulers consulted with and renovated the moon-temple of Ekhulkhul in Harran. Harran came under Assyrian rule under Adad-nirari I ( BC) and became a provincial capital often second in importance only to the Assyrian capital of Assur itself. During the collapse of the Assyrian Empire, Harran briefly served as the final capital ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 Southeast Europe. It shares borders with the Black Sea to the north; Georgia to the northeast; Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Iran to the east; Iraq to the southeast; Syria and the Mediterranean Sea to the south; the Aegean Sea to the west; and Greece and Bulgaria to the northwest. Cyprus is located off the south coast. Turks form the vast majority of the nation's population and Kurds are the largest minority. Ankara is Turkey's capital, while Istanbul is its largest city and financial centre. One of the world's earliest permanently settled regions, present-day Turkey was home to important Neolithic sites like Göbekli Tepe, and was inhabited by ancient civilisations including the Hattians, Hittites, Anatolian peoples, Mycenaea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Şanlıurfa Castle
Şanlıurfa Castle, or Urfa Castle in short, is a castle overlooking the city center of Şanlıurfa (previously Edessa), Turkey. The castle was built by the Osroene Osroene or Osrhoene (; grc-gre, Ὀσροηνή) was an ancient region and state in Upper Mesopotamia. The ''Kingdom of Osroene'', also known as the "Kingdom of Edessa" ( syc, ܡܠܟܘܬܐ ܕܒܝܬ ܐܘܪܗܝ / "Kingdom of Urhay"), according to ... in antiquity and the current walls were constructed by the Abbasids in 814 AD. Today, the castle functions as an open-air museum. References Castles in Turkey {{Turkey-castle-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Neolithic
The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts of the world. This "Neolithic package" included the introduction of farming, domestication of animals, and change from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to one of settlement. It began about 12,000 years ago when farming appeared in the Epipalaeolithic Near East, and later in other parts of the world. The Neolithic lasted in the Near East until the transitional period of the Chalcolithic (Copper Age) from about 6,500 years ago (4500 BC), marked by the development of metallurgy, leading up to the Bronze Age and Iron Age. In other places the Neolithic followed the Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) and then lasted until later. In Ancient Egypt, the Neolithic lasted until the Protodynastic period, 3150 BC.Karin Sowada and Peter Grave. Egyp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Daisan River
The Daysan River or Daisan River was the name of the river that flowed through Urfa, a tributary of the Khabur. Historically known as the Scirtus ( grc, Σκίρτος),Procopius, ''de Aed.'' 2.7 Procopius describes it as a river of Mesopotamia, a western tributary of the Chaboras (modern Khabur). It flowed from 25 sources, and ran past Edessa. (''Chron. Edess.'' in Asseman, ''Bibl. Or.'' i. p. 388.) Its name, which signifies the skipping or jumping (from σκιρτάω), is said to have been derived from its rapid course and its frequent overflowings; and its present name of Daysan or Daisan means the same thing. The river has flooded Edessa numerous times, including in 204, 305, and 415 CE. The Syriac writer Bardaisan Bardaisan (11 July 154 – 222 AD; syr, ܒܪ ܕܝܨܢ, ''Bardaiṣān''), known in Arabic as Ibn Daisan (ابن ديصان) and in Latin as Bardesanes, was a Syriac-speaking Assyrian or ParthianProds Oktor Skjaervo. ''Bardesanes''. Encyclopædia ... takes his na ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kurdish Languages
Kurdish (, ) is a language or a group of languages spoken by Kurds in the geo-cultural region of Kurdistan and the Kurdish diaspora. Kurdish constitutes a dialect continuum, belonging to Western Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family. The main three dialects or languages of Kurdish are Northern Kurdish (), Central Kurdish (), and Southern Kurdish (). A separate group of non-Kurdish Northwestern Iranian languages, the Zaza–Gorani languages, are also spoken by several million ethnic Kurds.Kaya, Mehmet. The Zaza Kurds of Turkey: A Middle Eastern Minority in a Globalised Society. The majority of the Kurds speak Kurmanji, and most Kurdish texts are written in Kurmanji and Sorani. Kurmanji is written in the Hawar alphabet, a derivation of the Latin script, and Sorani is written in the Sorani alphabet, a derivation of Arabic script. The classification of Laki as a dialect of Southern Kurdish or as a fourth language under Kurdish is a matter of debate, but the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 Eğirdir in the west to the upper reaches of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers in the east. It is a part of the Alpide belt in Eurasia. Etymology The mountain range under the current name was mentioned in ''The Histories'' by Polybius as Ταῦρος (''Taûros''). Heinrich Kiepert writes in ''Lehrbuch der alten Geographie'' that the name was borrowed into Ancient Greek from the Semitic ( Old Aramaic) root טורא ''ṭūrā'', meaning "mountain". Geography The Taurus mountains are divided into three chains from west to east as follows; * Western Taurus (Batı Toroslar) *Central Taurus (Orta Toroslar) *Southeastern Taurus (Güneydoğu Toroslar) Western Taurus The Western Taurus Mountains form an arc around the Gulf of Antalya. It inclu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metropolitan Municipalities In Turkey
There are 81 provinces in Turkey ( tr, il). Among the 81 provinces, 30 provinces are designated metropolitan municipalities ( tr, büyükşehir belediyeleri). Metropolitan municipalities are subdivided into districts ( tr, ilçe), where each district includes a corresponding district municipality, which is a second tier municipality. History The first metropolitan municipalities were established in 1984. These were the three most populous cities in Turkey, namely; Istanbul, Ankara, and İzmir. In each metropolitan municipality a number of second level municipalities (ilçe municipality) were established. In 1986, four new metropolitan municipalities were established: Adana, Bursa, Gaziantep and Konya. Two years later the total number was increased to eight with the addition of Kayseri. In 1993, seven new metropolitan municipalities were established: Antalya, Diyarbakır, Erzurum, Eskişehir, Mersin, Kocaeli and Samsun. Following the earthquake of 1999, Sakarya was also ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
