Sanli Urfa (in TurkishŞanlıurfa) is a city in eastern Turkey, and the provincial capital of Sanliurfa Province. To the Arabs it was known as Ar-Ruha and to the Greeks it was Orra; its Kurdish name is "Riha". It is about 80 kilometres east of the Euphrates River. The population is about 275,000 (1990).
In ancient and medieval times it was called Edessa, when it was a part of the SyriackingdomOsroene . According to Muslim tradition it is the location of Ur, and the birthplace of Abraham is said to be at a mosque in the city. The Great Mosque at 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 (mendil) of the prophet Jesus was thrown (see Image of Edessa). Under the Ottomans it was a centre of trade in cotton, leather, and jewellery.
It still has ruins of its ancient walls and of an Arab castle. There were three Christian communities: Syrian, Armenian, and Latin. The last Syrian Christians left in 1924 and went to Aleppo (where they settled down in a place that later got called Hay Al Suryan "The Assyrian Quarter").
The official name of the city has been changed into Sanliurfa (Şanlıurfa in Turkish spelling) in 1984 which was Urfa until this date. 'Şanlı' means great, glorious, dignified in Turkish, a reference to the city's role in the Turkish War of Independence.
External link
e-journal Golden Horn: Journal of Byzantium (http://www.isidore-of-seville.com/goudenhoorn/61andrew.html): essay by Andrew Palmer on Egeria's visit in 384 AD
English pages of the Sanliurfa Governor (http://www.sanliurfa.gov.tr/index.php?go=4,2,27): Some tourist information
adiyamanli.org on Sanli Urfa (http://www.adiyamanli.org/urfa.html)
Sanliurfa is located next to the Euphrates river, in the center of one of the longest inhabited areas in the world.
The idea of opening up a museum in Sanliurfa emerged back in 1948 and the first step to this end was taken with the transfer of the existing pieces to a storage area in Ataturk primary school.
Harran, located 44 kilometers south of Sanliurfa, is one of the most notable of these settlements and was continuously inhabited from 3000 BC to the 13th century.
The main landmark of Sanliurfa is the ancient citadel situated on one of the hills overlooking the town.
Sanliurfa's millennia old importance comes from its position of controlling a strategic pass for trade routes between Anatolia and northern Mesopotamia.
A large part of the population of Sanliurfa are Kurds, and there is a sizeable minority of Arabs.
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