SANLIURFA
Sanliurfa (City of prophets)
According to local tradition, allegedly based on the Qur'an, it is the birthplace of Abraham, the father of Judaism, before his migration to Canaan (now Palestine ). Local Muslim legend differs from that of the other great monotheistic faiths through the intervention of the viciously cruel giant King Nimrod, who had Abraham launched from a catapult in the city's citadel, to fall into a pile of burning wood. Happily, God intervened and turned the fire to water and the faggots to fish. Today, visitors can pray at the mosque complex surrounding Abraham's cave and visit the lifesaving pools of holy carp.
Harran
South of Sanliurfa, the landscape once more flattens into to the Mesopotamian
plain, broken only by ancient mounds and obscure, mudbrick villages, many
of which are now being connected to the electrical grid. With the prospect
of greater wealth, thanks to irrigation, locals are gleefully investing
in such “luxury” objects as refrigerators and televisions.
The pace of change is rapid and sometimes startling.
Harran has an incredibly ancient and illustrious past. Here was the site of the Temple of Sin (erroneously called the first university), famous throughout the ancient world for its star readers and savants. It was here in Harran that Rebecca drew water for Jacob, from whence Abraham decided to make his move into the land of Canaan .
Keban Dam, Ataturk Dam
This central area, formerly dependent on snowfall and rain for dryland farming, has become a major source of grain for Turkey due to the construction of the massive Keban Dam at the confluence of Euphrates and the Murat rivers as they churn deep and white out of the mountains of the central Anatolian plateau. This was Turkey 's answer to the Aswan and High Dams on the Nile in Egypt until the initiation of the even larger and vastly more ambitious Ataturk Dam project downstream near Sanliurfa. For travellers with a taste for engineering feats, the dam wall itself is worth a visit, resembling the spectacular Hoover Dam on the USA 's Colorado River . |
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