The old town is one of the most evocative and romantic places in Turkey, consisting mostly of traditional cone shaped domed houses surrounded by courtyards. The city has great potential for tourism, yet it is far from being realized.



After a two-hour flight from Istanbul, approaching the southeastern city of Şanlıurfa, there are no streetlights visible from the air, which gives the impression the plane is about to land in the middle of nowhere.

The Şanlıurfa international airport, established last year, is 35 kilometers from the city center. The connecting road, one-third of which is still under construction, is hard to tolerate but absolutely worth taking, as it brings you to a spectacular old city.

The city is known as the birthplace of Abraham, commemorated by a mosque in the city. The old town is one of the most evocative and romantic places in Turkey, consisting mostly of traditional cone-shaped, domed houses surrounded by courtyards.

Şanlıurfa mayor Ahmet Eşref
Fakıbaba has shown tourism to be a major alternative, pointing out the newly unearthed Roman palace and floor mosaics depicting Amazonians in the Haleplibahçe district.

“Şanlıurfa has a great potential for spiritual tourism,” said Fakıbaba, as the city is known as “the city of prophets” where many ancient civilizations existed for centuries.

It is obvious that the city has great tourism potential and presents an attractive investment option, yet it is far from being realized. The local authority has mobilized to turn around the fate of the region, and they have too much to do. Old Şanlıurfa houses, which reflect the historic texture and traditional architectural structure of the city, have started serving tourists as boutique hotels. The city, however, still faces accommodation problems, despite the recently built hotels and guesthouses.

As İsmail Demirkol, chairman of the Şanlıurfa Commerce of Trade and Industry, said, low education levels in the region remain a big problem, which complicates any economic and social transformation.

Tourism as the future of the city

The southeastern city of Şanlıurfa has a busy agenda these days. Businesspeople, politicians, academics and journalists, both domestic and international, flocked to Şanlıurfa last week for a series of meetings.

Following the visit by the head of the European Union delegation to Turkey, Ambassador Marc Pierini, to Şanlıurfa on Oct. 20, State Minister Nazım Ekren and Arzuhan Doğan Yalçındağ, chairperson of the Turkish Industrialists and Businessmen Association, or TUSIAD, paid a visit to the city for the Second Business Forum of Union of Black Sea and Caspian Confederation of Enterprises, or UBCCE, on Oct. 22. The following day, Garanti Bank, the Turkish lender co-owned by Doğuş Holding and General Electric, organized its 55th “Anatolia Conversations.”

While the panel meeting was continuing, a group of parliamentarians of Turkish origin from several European countries, along with some accompanying foreign journalists, visited the city for a better grasp of the region's economic and tourist potential.

All these organizers of meetings and delegations coming here from all over the world are part of a novel effort to make the city a new attraction. However, old questions remain the same in this southeastern city on the Syrian border, 1,264 kilometers from Istanbul. Although the city is trying hard to escape its economic slump by focusing on tourism, agriculture is still the most important economic activity.

The Southeastern Anatolia Project, or GAP, Turkey's biggest development project, which started in 1989, looms large as the key to the development of the poor southeastern regions and to boost the country's agriculture sector.

Vast agricultural lands have been striped by water canals, with various instructive notices, such as “more water doesn't always mean more harvest,” posted there to increase farmers' awareness. However, Şanlıurfa, which accounts for almost half the land to be irrigated through the project, suffers from salinization

and aridity, which threatens cotton production because of faulty canal irrigation techniques.

Locals complain about the stagnant economy when asked. Mehmet Gözek, a tailor sewing bridal goods in his small shop on the second floor of an old passage, says his business has been at a standstill for at least a year. When asked for the reasons for such slow business, unsurprisingly he blames the government. When the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, came to power here they gave hope to the Kurdish people, he said, but now there is mostly frustration. According to Gözek, political and social steps to solve the problems concerning civil rights have not gone far.

Erkan, a vendor of fish bait for 25 years at the legendary Pool of Sacred Fish (Balıklıgöl), where Nimrod threw Abraham into the fire, is satisfied with his business. His only concern is other unregistered vendors, who threaten the health of the fish in the pool as the limit set by the municipality for worms sold in a day is 50 kilograms. It is a long tradition to feed these sacred fish as it is believed when Abraham was thrown into the fire, the blaze turned into cool water forming this pool and the burning wood turned into fish.



Amazonian mozaics

The mosaics are worth mentioning here as they provide hitherto unknown information in the history of the Amazonians. Before now, nobody knew the Amazonians had traveled this far south.

Alone they might be insufficient to claim the Amazonians lived in Şanlıurfa, but the mosaics still shine an important light on history. Mosaics unearthed in the Haleplibahçe district, one of the oldest historical residential areas of the city, depict four Amazonian queens, Hippolyte, Antiope, Melanippe and Penthesileia, hunting in the forest. Excavation work is still continuing and upon completion the area will be turned into a theme park.

Furthermore, excavations in Göbekli Tepe, 15 kilometers from Şanlıurfa's city center, have exposed precious findings dating back as early as 9000 BC