Diyarbakır is the largest
Kurdish-majority city in
Turkey
Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...
. It is the administrative center of
Diyarbakır Province.
Situated around a high plateau by the banks of the
Tigris river on which stands the historic
Diyarbakır Fortress, it is the administrative capital of the
Diyarbakır Province of southeastern
Turkey
Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...
. It is the second-largest city in the
Southeastern Anatolia Region. As of December 2024, the Metropolitan Province population was 1 833 684 of whom 1 164 940 lived in the built-up (or metro) area made of the 4 urban districts (
Bağlar,
Kayapınar,
Sur and
Yenişehir).
Diyarbakır has been a main focal point of the
conflict between the Turkish state and various
Kurdish separatist groups, and is seen by many Kurds as the de facto capital of
Kurdistan. The city was intended to become the capital of an
independent Kurdistan following the
Treaty of Sèvres, but this was disregarded following subsequent political developments.
On 6 February 2023 Diyarbakır was affected by the twin
Turkey-Syria earthquakes, which inflicted some damage on its city walls.
Names and etymology
In ancient times the city was known as
Amida, a name which could derive from an older Assyrian toponym ''Amedi''. The name ''Āmid'' was also used in
Arabic
Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...
.
The name ''Amit'' is found in official documents of the
Empire of Trebizond from 1358.
After the
Muslim conquests of the 7th century, the city became known as ''Diyar Bakr'' (), in reference to the territory of the
Banu Bakr tribe, the ''
Diyar Bakr''.
That tribe had already settled in
northern Mesopotomia during the pre-Islamic period. In the 7th century, during the caliphate of
Uthman and under the regional governorship of
Mu'awiya, a portion of the tribe was ordered to settle further north in the lands near the city.
The city was later also known in
Turkish as ("Black Amid"), on account of its black basalt walls.
In November 1937, Turkish President
Atatürk visited the city and after expressing uncertainty on the exact etymology of the city's name, "Diyarbekir", in December of the same year ordered that it be renamed "Diyarbakır", which means "land of copper" in Turkish after the abundant resources of
copper around the city. This was one of the early examples of the
Turkification process of non-Turkish place names, in which non-Turkish (Greek, Kurdish, Armenian, Arabic and other) geographical names were changed to Turkish alternatives.
The
Armenian name of the city is ''Tigranakert/Dikranagerd'' ().
[ Western Armenian pronunciation: ''Dikranagerd''; ] It is known as in
Kurdish and in
Syriac as (Āmīd).
History
Antiquity
People have inhabited the area around Diyarbakır since the Stone Age. The first major civilization to establish itself in the region of Diyarbakır was the
Hurrian kingdom of the
Mitanni. It was then ruled by a succession of nearly every polity that controlled
Upper Mesopotamia, including the
Arameans,
Assyrians,
Urartu,
Armenians,
Achaemenid Persians,
Medes,
Seleucids, and
Parthians. The
Roman Republic
The Roman Republic ( ) was the era of Ancient Rome, classical Roman civilisation beginning with Overthrow of the Roman monarchy, the overthrow of the Roman Kingdom (traditionally dated to 509 BC) and ending in 27 BC with the establis ...
gained control of the city in 66 BC, by which stage it was named "Amida". In 359,
Shapur II of Persia captured Amida after a siege of 73 days.
[''The Eye of Command'', Kimberly Kagan, p. 23]
According to the ''
Synecdemus'' of
Hierocles, as Amida, Diyarbakır was the major city of the
Roman province
The Roman provinces (, pl. ) were the administrative regions of Ancient Rome outside Roman Italy that were controlled by the Romans under the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire. Each province was ruled by a Roman appointed as Roman g ...
of
Mesopotamia.
It was the
episcopal see of the Christian
diocese of Mesopotamia.
Ancient texts record that ancient Amida had an
amphitheatre, ''
thermae'' (public baths), warehouses, a
tetrapylon monument, and
Roman aqueducts supplying and distributing water.
The Roman historian
Ammianus Marcellinus was serving in the
late Roman army during the
Siege of Amida by the
Sasanian Empire
The Sasanian Empire (), officially Eranshahr ( , "Empire of the Iranian peoples, Iranians"), was an List of monarchs of Iran, Iranian empire that was founded and ruled by the House of Sasan from 224 to 651. Enduring for over four centuries, th ...
under
Shapur II (), and described the successful siege in detail.
Amida was then enlarged by refugees from ancient Nisibis (
Nusaybin), which the emperor
Jovian () was forced to evacuate and cede to Shapur's Persians after the defeat of his predecessor
Julian's Persian War, becoming the main Roman stronghold in the region.
The
chronicle attributed to
Joshua the Stylite describes the capture of Amida by the Persians under
Kavad I () in the second
Siege of Amida in 502–503, part of the
Anastasian War.
Either the emperor
Anastasius Dicorus () or the emperor
Justinian the Great () rebuilt the walls of Amida, a feat of defensive architecture praised by the Greek historian
Procopius.
As recorded by the works of
John of Ephesus,
Zacharias Rhetor, and Procopius, the Romans and Persians continued to contest the area, and in the
Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628 Amida was captured and held by the Persians for twenty-six years, being recovered in 628 for the Romans by the emperor
Heraclius (), who also founded a church in the city on his return to
Constantinople (
Istanbul
Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...
) from Persia the following year.
Ecclesiastical history
Syriac Christianity took hold in the region between the 1st and 4th centuries AD, particularly amongst the
Assyrians of the city. The
Byzantine Emperor Theodosius II (408–450) divided the
Roman province
The Roman provinces (, pl. ) were the administrative regions of Ancient Rome outside Roman Italy that were controlled by the Romans under the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire. Each province was ruled by a Roman appointed as Roman g ...
of
Mesopotamia into two, and made Amida the capital of Mesopotamia Prima, and thereby also the
metropolitan see for all the province's
bishoprics.
At some stage, Amida became a see of the
Armenian Church. The bishops who held the see in 1650 and 1681 were in
full communion with the
Holy See, and in 1727 Peter Derboghossian sent his profession of faith to Rome. He was succeeded by two more bishops of the
Armenian Catholic Church, Eugenius and Ioannes of
Smyrna, the latter of whom died in
Constantinople in 1785. After a long vacancy, three more bishops followed.
The diocese had some 5,000 Armenian Catholics in 1903, but it lost most of its population in the 1915
Armenian genocide. The last
diocesan bishop of the see, Andreas Elias Celebian, was killed with some 600 of his flock in the summer of 1915.
[Pius Bonifacius Gams]
''Series episcoporum Ecclesiae Catholicae''
Leipzig 1931, p. 456[Pius Bonifacius Gams]
''Series episcoporum Ecclesiae Catholicae''
Complementi, Leipzig 1931, p. 93[F. Tournebize, v. ''Amid ou Amida'', i]
''Dictionnaire d'Histoire et de Géographie ecclésiastiques''
vol. XII, Paris 1953, coll. 1246–1247[Hovhannes J. Tcholakian, ''L'église arménienne catholique en Turquie'', 1998]
An eparchy for the local members of the
Syriac Catholic Church was established in 1862.
Persecution of Christians in the Ottoman Empire during the First World War brought an end to the existence of both these Syrian residential sees.
Middle Ages
In 639, as part of the
Muslim conquest of the Levant during the early
Arab–Byzantine wars, Amida fell to the armies of the
Rashidun Caliphate led by
Iyad ibn Ghanm, and the Great Mosque of Amida was constructed afterwards in the city's centre, possibly on the site of the Heraclian Church of Saint Thomas.
There were as many as five Christian
monasteries in the city, including the
Zuqnin Monastery and several ancient churches mentioned by John of Ephesus.
One of these, the
Church of the Virgin Mary, remains the city's
cathedral and the see of the
bishop of Diyarbakır in the
Syriac Orthodox Church.
Another ancient church, the Church of Mar Cosmas, was seen by the British explorer
Gertrude Bell in 1911 but was destroyed in 1930, while the former
Church of Saint George, in the walled citadel, may originally have been built for Muslim use or for the
Church of the East.
The city was part of the
Umayyad Caliphate and then the
Abbasid Caliphate, but then came under more local rule until its recovery in 899 by forces loyal to the caliph
al-Mu'tadid () before falling under the sway of first the
Hamdanid dynasty and then the
Buyid dynasty, followed by a period of control by the
Marwanids. The city was taken by the
Seljuks in 1085 and by the
Ayyubids in 1183. Ayyubid control lasted until the
Mongol invasions of Anatolia, with its last Ayyubid ruler
Al-Kamil Muhammad. The Mongols of
Hulagu captured of the city in 1260 (
Siege of Mayyāfāriqīn), following a long siege with a small Mongol force and a much larger Georgian and Armenian force under the Georgian leader
Hasan Brosh. Between the Mongol occupation and conquest by the
Safavid dynasty of Iran, the
Kara Koyunlu and
Aq Qoyunlu – two
Turkoman confederations – were in control of the city in succession. Diyarbakır was conquered by the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...
in 1514 by
Bıyıklı Mehmed Pasha, in the reign of the sultan
Selim I ().
Mohammad Khan Ustajlu, the Safavid governor of Diyarbakir, was evicted from the city and killed in the following
Battle of Chaldiran in 1514.
Safavids and Ottomans

The
Classical Age of the Ottoman Empire saw it expand into
Western Armenia and all but the eastern regions of
Kurdistan at the expense of the Safavids. From the early 16th century, the city and the wider region was the source of intrigue between the Safavids and the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...
, both of whom sought the support of the Kurdish chieftains around
Idris Bitlisi.
It was conquered by the Ottoman Empire in 1514 in the campaigns of
Bıyıklı Mehmed Pasha, under the rule of Sultan
Selim I.
Mohammad Khan Ustajlu, the Safavid Governor of Diyarbakir, was evicted from the city and killed in the following
Battle of Chaldiran in 1514.
Following their victory, the Ottomans established the
Diyarbekir Eyalet with its administrative centre in Diyarbakır. The Eyalet of Diyarbakır corresponded to today's
Turkish Kurdistan, a rectangular area between the
Lake Urmia to
Palu and from the southern shores of
Lake Van to
Cizre and the beginnings of the
Syrian Desert, although its borders saw some changes over time. The city was an important military base for controlling the region and at the same time a thriving city noted for its craftsmen, producing glass and metalwork. For example, the doors of
Rumi's tomb in
Konya were made in Diyarbakır, as were the gold and silver decorated doors of the tomb of
Ebu Hanife in
Baghdad. Ottoman rule was confirmed by the 1555
Peace of Amasya which followed the
Ottoman–Safavid War (1532–1555).
Concerned with independent-mindedness of the
Kurdish principalities, the
Ottomans sought to curb their influence and bring them under the control of the central government in
Constantinople. However, removal from power of these hereditary principalities led to more instability in the region from the 1840s onwards. In their place,
sufi sheiks and religious orders rose to prominence and spread their influence throughout the region. One of the prominent Sufi leaders was ''
Shaikh Ubaidalla Nahri'', who began a revolt in the region between Lakes
Van and
Urmia. The area under his control covered both Ottoman and
Qajar territories. Shaikh Ubaidalla is regarded as one of the earliest proponents of
Kurdish nationalism. In a letter to a
British Vice-Consul, he declared: "The Kurdish nation is a people apart... we want our affairs to be in our hands."
In 1895 an estimated 25,000
Armenians and
Assyrians were
massacred in
Diyarbekir Vilayet, including in the city.
At the turn of the 19th century, the Christian population of the city was mainly made up of
Armenians and
Syriac Orthodox Christians.
The city was also a site of
ethnic cleansing during the 1915
Armenian and
Assyrian genocide (see:
1915 genocide in Diyarbekir); nearly 150,000 were expelled from the city to the death marches in the
Syrian Desert.
Republic of Turkey
In January 1928, Diyarbakır became the center of the
First Inspectorate-General, a regional subdivision for an area containing the provinces of
Hakkari,
Van,
Şırnak,
Mardin,
Siirt,
Bitlis and
Şanlıurfa. In a reorganization of the provinces in 1952, Diyarbakır city was made the administrative capital of the
Diyarbakır Province. In 1993, Diyarbakir was established as a Metropolitan Municipality. Its districts are
Bağlar,
Bismil,
Ergani,
Hazro,
Kayapinar,
Çermik,
Çinar,
Eğil,
Dicle,
Kulp,
Kocaköy,
Lice,
Silvan,
Sur,
Yenişehir,
Hani and
Çüngüş.
The American-Turkish
Pirinçlik Air Force Base near Diyarbakır was operational from 1956 to 1997.
Diyarbakır has seen much violence in recent years, involving Turkish security forces, the
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), and the
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Between 8 November 2015 and 15 May 2016
large parts of Sur were destroyed in fighting between the
Turkish military and the PKK. In early November 2015, Kurdish lawyer and human rights activist
Tahir Elçi was killed in the Sur district during a press statement in which he had been calling for a de-escalation in violence between the PKK and the Turkish state.

A 2018 report by Arkeologlar Derneği İstanbul found that, since 2015, 72% of the city's historic
Sur district had been destroyed through demolition and redevelopment, and that laws designed to protect historic monuments had been ignored. They found that the city's "urban regeneration" policy was one of demolition and redevelopment rather than one of repairing cultural assets damaged during the recent civil conflict, and because of that many registered historic buildings had been completely destroyed. The extent of the loss of non-registered historic structures is unknown because any historic building fragments revealed during the demolition of modern structures were also demolished.
As of 2021, large parts of the city and district were restored and government officials were looking towards tourism again.
Many residences and buildings collapsed or suffered substantial damage in the
2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes around 200 miles (300 km) from the epicentre. A Turkish professor and former journalist from the country commented, "It is like having an epicenter of an earthquake in
Harrisburg and buildings in New York City are collapsing."
Sports
The most notable
football clubs of the city are
Diyarbakırspor (established 1968) and
Amed S.F.K. (established 1990), with
Deniz Naki being one of the most notable footballers from the city. The women's football team
Amed S.K. were promoted at the end of the 2016–17
Turkish Women's Second Football League season to the
Women's First League.
Diyarbakırspor competed in the
Süper Lig for 11 seasons, and
Amed S.F.K. tried to repeat this success by advancing to the
TFF 1. Ligin the
2023–24 season.
Politics
In the
2014 local elections,
Gültan Kışanak and
Fırat Anlı of the
Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) were elected co-mayors of Diyarbakır. However, on 25 October 2016, both were detained by Turkish authorities "on thinly supported charges of being a member of the
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)".
The Turkish government ordered a general internet blackout after the arrest. Nevertheless, on 26 October, several thousand demonstrators at Diyarbakir city hall demanded the mayors' release.
Some days later, the Turkish government appointed an unelected state trustee as the mayor. In November, public prosecutors demanded a 230-year prison sentence for Kışanak.
In January 2017, the un-elected state trustee appointed by the Turkish government ordered the removal of the
Assyrian sculpture of a mythological winged bull from the town hall, which had been erected by the BDP mayors to commemorate the Assyrian history of the town and its still resident Assyrian minority. All Kurdish language street signs were also removed, alongside the shutting down of organisations concerned with Kurdish language and culture, removal of Kurdish names from public parks, and removal of Kurdish cultural monuments and linguistic symbols.
In the
2019 municipal elections,
Adnan Selçuk Mızraklı of the
HDP party was elected mayor of Diyarbakir. In August 2019 he was dismissed and subsequently sentenced to 9 years and 4 months imprisonment accused of supporting terrorism as part of a government crackdown against politicians of the
Kurdish HDP party; the Turkish state appointed
Münir Karaloğlu in his place. Other Kurdish mayors in Kurdish cities across the region also suffered a similar fate, with
Turkish President Erdoğan vowing to remove any future Kurdish mayors too. Protests against the decision arose which were suppressed by the Turkish police with the use of water cannons; some protestors were killed.
Diyarbakır's prison has become home to many
political prisoners, mainly
Kurdish activists and politicians accused of terrorism charges by the Turkish state. Inmates have been subject to torture, rape, humiliation, beating, murder and other abuses.
Economy
Historically, Diyarbakır produced
wheat and
sesame.
They would preserve the wheat in
warehouses, with coverings of
straw and twigs from
licorice trees. This system would allow the wheat to be preserved for up to ten years.
In the late 19th and early 20th century, Diyarbakır exported
raisins,
almonds, and
apricots to Europe.
Angora goats were raised, and wool and
mohair was exported from Diyarbakır. Merchants would also come from
Egypt,
Istanbul
Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...
, and
Syria, to purchase goats and
sheep.
Honey
Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several species of bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of pl ...
was also produced, but not so much exported, but used by locals.
Sericulture was observed in the area, too.
Prior to World War I, Diyarbakır had an active
copper industry, with six mines. Three were active, with two being owned by locals and the third being owned by the Turkish government.
Tenorite was the primary type of copper mined. It was mined by hand by Kurds. A large portion of the ore was exported to England. The region also produced
iron,
gypsum,
coal,
chalk,
lime,
jet, and
quartz, but primarily for local use.
The city is served by
Diyarbakır Airport and
Diyarbakır railway station. In 1935 the railway between
Elazığ and Diyarbakır was inaugurated.
Demographics
At the turn of the 19th century, the Christian population of the city was mainly made up of Armenians and Assyrians.
The Assyrian and Armenian presence dates to antiquity. There was also a small Jewish community in the city.
Konu: Diyarbakır Tarihi ve Demografik Yapısı All Christians spoke Armenian and Kurdish. Notables spoke Turkish. In the streets, the language was Kurdish. According to the
Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' from 1911, the population numbered 38 thousand, almost half being Christian and consisting of "Turks, Kurds, Arabs, Turkomans, Armenians, Chaldeans, Jacobites, and a few Greeks". During the Governorship of
Mehmed Reshid in the
Vilayet of Diyarbakır, the Armenian population of Diyarbakir was resettled and exterminated.
After World War II, as the Kurdish population moved from the villages and mountains to urban centres, Diyarbakir's Kurdish population continued to grow.
Diyarbakır grew from a population of 30,000 in the 1930s to 65,000 by 1956, to 140,000 by 1970, to 400,000 by 1990,
and eventually swelled to about 1.5 million by 1997. During the 1990s, the city grew dramatically due to the immigrant population from thousands of
Kurdish villages depopulated by Turkey during the
Kurdish–Turkish conflict.
According to a November 2006 survey by the Sûr Municipality, 72% of the inhabitants of the municipality use
Kurdish most often in their daily speech due to the overwhelming Kurdish majority in the city, followed by minorities of
Assyrian,
Armenian and
Turkish.
There are some
Alevi Turkmen villages around Diyarbakır's
old city, but there are no official reports about their population numbers.
There have been attempts by Turkish lawmakers to deny Diyarbakır's Kurdish majority identity,
with
Turkey's Education Ministry releasing a school book named "Our City, Diyarbakir" ("''Şehrimiz Diyarbakır"''
in Turkish) on
Diyarbakir Province in which it claims that a
Turkish similar to that spoken in
Baku is spoken in the city along with regional languages like
Arabic
Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...
,
Persian,
Kurdish,
Turkmen and
Caucasian languages.
Critics link this to a general trend towards
anti-Kurdish sentiment in Turkey.
Culture
There is local jewelry making and other craftwork in the area. Folk dancing to the drum and
zurna (pipe) are a part of weddings and celebrations in the area. The Diyarbakir Municipality Theatre was founded in 1990, and had to close its doors in 1995.
It was re-opened in 1999,
under Mayor
Osman Baydemir. It was closed down in 2016 after the dismissal of the mayor in 2016.
The Municipality City Theatre also
performed plays in the Kurdish language.
One of the other common celebrations in Turkey is
Nowruz. This celebration is done on the pretext of the beginning of spring and the beginning of the
new year. The establishment of Nowruz has a long history, so much so that it has been celebrated in different parts of
Asia for the past three thousand years, especially in the
Middle East
The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq.
The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...
. In different parts of Turkey, especially the
Kurdish regions of this country, Nowruz is considered one of the most important cultural and historical traditions of these regions. Lighting a fire, wearing new clothes, holding a dance ceremony, and giving gifts to each other are some of the activities that are done in this celebration.
Cuisine
Diyarbakır's cuisine includes lamb dishes which use spices such as
black pepper,
sumac and
coriander; rice,
bulgur and butter. Local dishes include Meftune, lamb meat and vegetables with garlic and sumac, and Kaburga Dolması, baked lamb's ribs stuffed with rice, almonds and spices. Watermelons are grown locally and there is an annual Watermelon Festival.
Main sights

The core of Diyarbakır is surrounded by an almost intact set of high walls of black basalt forming a circle around the old city. There are four gates into the old city and 82 watch-towers on the walls, which were built in antiquity and restored and extended by the
Roman emperor Constantius II in 349. The area inside the walls is known as the Sur district; before its recent demolition and redevelopment this district had 599 registered historical buildings.
Nearby is
Karaca Dağ.
Medieval mosques and medreses
*
Great Mosque of Diyarbakır built by the
Seljuk Turkish Sultan
Malik Shah in the 11th century. The mosque, one of the oldest in Turkey, is constructed in alternating bands of black basalt and white limestone (The same patterning is used in the 16th century Deliler Han Madrassah, which is now a hotel). The adjoining ''Mesudiye Medresesi''/''Medreseya Mesûdiyeyê'' was built at the same time, as was another prayer-school in the city, ''Zinciriye Medresesi''/''Medreseya Zincîriyeyê''.
*
Behram Pasha Mosque (''Beharampaşa Camii''/''Mizgefta Behram Paşa'') – an
Ottoman mosque built in 1572 by the governor of Diyarbakır, Behram
Pasha, noted for the well-constructed arches at the entrance.
*
Sheikh Matar Mosque with ''Dört Ayaklı Minare''/''Mizgefta Çarling'' (''the Four-legged Minaret'') – built by Kasim Khan of the
Aq Qoyunlu.
* ''Fatihpaşa Camii''/''Mizgefta Fetih Paşa'' – built in 1520 by Diyarbakır's first
Ottoman governor, Bıyıklı Mehmet Paşa ("the moustachioed Mehmet pasha"). The city's earliest Ottoman building, it is decorated with fine tilework.
*
Hazreti Süleyman Mosque/''Mizgefta Hezretî Silêman'' (1155–1169) Süleyman son of
Halid Bin Velid, who died capturing the city from the Arabs, is buried here along with his companions.
* ''Hüsrevpaşa Camii''/''Mizgefta Husrev Paşa'' – the mosque of the second Ottoman governor, 1512–1528. Originally the building was intended to be a school (''medrese'')
* ''İskender Paşa Camii''/''Mizgefta Îskender Paşa'' – a mosque of an Ottoman governor, in black and white stone, built in 1551.
* ''Melek Ahmet Camii''/''Melek Ahmed Paşa'' a 16th-century mosque with tiled prayer-niche and for the double stairway up the minaret.
* ''Nebii Camii''/''Mizgefta Pêxember'' – an
Aq Qoyunlu mosque, a single-domed stone construction from the 16th century. ''Nebi Camii'' means "the mosque of the prophet" and is named for the inscriptions in honour of the prophet on its
minaret.
* ''Safa Camii''/''Mizgefta Palo'' – built in the middle of the 15th century under Uzun Hasan, ruler of the
Aq Qoyunlu (White Sheep Turkomans) tribe and restored in Ottoman time in 1532.
Churches

*
St. Giragos Armenian Church – first built in 1519, the current structure is from 1883, and was recently restored after a long period of disuse.
* The
Syriac Orthodox Church of Our Lady ( `''Idto d-Yolda
t Aloho'', ), was first constructed as a pagan temple in the 1st century BC. The current construction dates back to the 3rd century, has been restored many times, and is still in use as a place of worship today.
* Mar Petyun (St. Anthony)
Chaldean Catholic Church, built in 1681.
*Surp Sarkis Chaldean Church
*
St. Marys Cathedral
*
St. George's Church
Museums

*The ''Archaeological Museum'' contains artifacts from the
Neolithic period, through the
Early Bronze Age,
Assyrian,
Urartu,
Roman,
Byzantine,
Artuqids,
Seljuk Turk,
Aq Qoyunlu, and
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...
periods.
*
Cahit Sıtkı Tarancı Museum – the home of the late poet and a classic example of a traditional Diyarbakır home.
*
Ziya Gökalp Museum – the birthplace of poet
Ziya Gökalp, preserved as a museum to his life and works.
*
Ahmet Arif Literature Museum Library
Other historical buildings
*The
Diyarbakır Fortress and
Hevsel Gardens Cultural Landscape, named a
UNESCO World Heritage site in 2015.
*
Hasan Pasha Han, a large 16th-century Ottoman caravanserai, now hosting shops and cafés.
*
Delliler Han, a caravanserai built in 1527, now used as a five-star hotel.
*
Sülüklü Han, built circa 1680, now a popular café and meeting spot.
*The
Dicle Bridge, an 11th-century bridge with ten arches.
*Urfa Kapi, Urfa Kapi (Urfa Gate) is one of the four main gates built in the 4th century Byzantine era city walls of Diyarbakir that leads the road from the west to the town of Urfa.
Climate
Diyarbakır has a
Mediterranean (
Köppen climate classification: ''Csa'') or an anomalously warm, hot-summer
oceanic climate (
Trewartha climate classification: ''Doa''). Summers are very hot and very dry, due to its location on the
Mesopotamian plain which is subject to hot air masses from the
deserts of
Syria and
Iraq to the south. The highest recorded temperature was 46.2 °C (112.64 °F) on 21 July 1937. Winters are chilly with moderate precipitation and frosty nights. Snowfall is quite common between the months of December and March, snowing for a week or two. The lowest recorded temperature was −24.2 °C (−10.12 °F) on 11 January 1933. Highest recorded snow depth was 65 cm (25.6 inches) on 16 January 1971.
Notable people
* See
People from Diyarbakır
See also
*
Diyarbakır (electoral district)
* ''
Kitab-i Diyarbakriyya''
*
Bozulus
*
Another Look at East and Southeast Turkey
*
Nowruz
*
Turkish Kurdistan
Notes
References
Sources
*
*
Further reading
*
*
External links
*
Governorship of Diyarbakır*
Diyarbakırspor funs, news, informarmation*
Information on DiyarbakırOver 1000 well-organized pictures of major sights
{{DEFAULTSORT:Diyarbakir
Cities in Turkey
Populated places in Diyarbakır Province
Populated places on the Tigris River
Turkish Kurdistan
Upper Mesopotamia
Assyrian communities in Turkey
Ancient Assyrian cities
Kurdish settlements in Turkey
Armenian communities in Turkey