Şanlıurfa /Turkey (Beautiful old city&bazaar;) Part 4
Şanlıurfa:
Şanlıurfa,in ancient times
Edessa (Έδεσσα in
Greek), is a city with 482,323 inhabitants in south-eastern
Turkey, and the capital of
Şanlıurfa Province. It is a city with a mixed
Arab,
Kurdish and
Turkish population. Urfa is situated on a plain about eighty kilometres east of the
Euphrates River. Urfa's climate features extremely hot, dry summers and cool, moist winters.
Climate:Şanlıurfa has a semi-arid climate. Şanlıurfa is very hot during the summer months. Temperatures in the height of summer usually reach 41.5°C (107°F). Rainfall is almost non-existent during the summer months.
Winters are cool and wet.
Frost is common and there is sporadic snowfall.
Spring and autumn are mild and also wet.
Cuisine:As the city of Urfa is deeply rooted in history, so its unique cuisine is an amalgamation of the cuisines of the many civilizations that have ruled in Urfa. Dishes carry names in
Arabic,
Armenian,
Syriac, and
Turkish, and are often prepared in a spicy manner. It is widely believed that Urfa is the birthplace of many dishes, including Raw Kibbé (Çiğ Köfte), that according to the legend, was crafted by the
Prophet Abraham from ingredients he had at hand.
Urfa is also known throughout Turkey and the bordering
Syria for its very rich kebab culture, making extesive use of lamb meat, fat and offal. The offal has also a primordial place in the regular Urfa cuisine, being prepared in more than two hundred different ways.
Urfa's meze menu is also very rich, and carries a great variety, mostly unknown in other parts of Turkey, such as the "Ağzı Yumuk" or the "Semsek".
Many vegetables are used in the Urfa cuisine, such as the "'Ecır," the "Kenger," and the "
İsot", the legendary local red capsicum that is a smaller and darker cultivar of the
Aleppo pepper that takes a purplish black hue when dried and cured. It is used to flavor many dishes, even a variety of ice cream.
The cuisine also makes an extensive use of the eggplant with more than a hundred recipes containing eggplant.
Unlike most of the
Turkish cities that use different versions of regular butter in their regional cuisine, Urfa is, together with
Antep,
Mardin and
Siirt a big user of clarified butter, made exclusively from sheep's milk, called locally "Urfayağı" ("Urfabutter"). Other than that, Urfa is a heavy consumer of quality
Olive oil, that mostly arrives into the city from nearby Syria.
Among Urfa's classic sweets is the "Şıllık", a coarse walnut ground covered in sweet pastry, the Kahke, flavored with aniseed and baked in a steamer, and the "Külünçe", a masonry oven-baked pastry item similar to the
Iraqi Kleyça.
The bitter Arab coffee "Mırra" and the coffee substitute drink made from wild terebinth "Menengiç kahvesi" are among the most common hot beverages of Urfa.
The birthplace of the prophet
Abraham -- a cave to the south of the lake
Urfa castle -- built in antiquity, the current walls were constructed by the
Abbasids in 814
AD.
The legendary
Pool of
Sacred Fish (Balıklıgöl) where Abraham was thrown into the fire by
Nimrod. The pool is in the courtyard of the mosque of Halil-ur-Rahman, built by the
Ayyubids in 1211 and now surrounded by the attractive Gölbaşı-gardens designed by architect
Merih Karaaslan. The courtyard is where the fishes thrive. A local legend says seeing a white fish will open the door to the heavens.
Rızvaniye
Mosque -- a more recent (1716) Ottoman mosque, adjoining the Balıkligöl complex.
'Ayn Zelîha -- A source nearby the historical center, named after Zulaykha, a follower of Abraham.
The
Great Mosque of Urfa was built in 1170, on the site of a
Christian church the
Arabs called the "
Red Church," probably incorporating some
Roman masonry.
Contemporary tradition at the site identifies the well of the mosque as that into which the towel or burial cloth (mendil) of
Jesus was thrown (see
Image of Edessa and
Shroud of Turin)
. In the south wall of the medrese adjoining the mosque is the fountain of
Firuz Bey (1781).
Ruins of the ancient city walls.
Eight
Turkish baths built in the
Ottoman period.
The traditional Urfa houses were split into sections for family (harem) and visitors (selâm). There is an example open to the public next to the post office in the district of
Kara Meydan.
The Temple of Nevali Çori -- Neolithic settlement dating back to 8000BC, now buried under the waters behind the
Atatürk Dam, with some artefacts relocated above the waterline.
Göbekli Tepe --
The world's oldest known temple, dated
10th millennium BC (ca 11,
500 years ago)