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Harran Travel Guide

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Harran Travel Guide

Contents hide
1 Harran Travel Guide
1.1 Introduction
1.1.1 How to Get to Harran
1.2 What to See in Harran
1.2.1 The Site
1.3 Take a Photography Tour to Harran
1.4 History

Introduction

Harran, about 50 kilometers south of Sanliurfa, is famous for its traditional mud-brick beehive housing style, but this small town offers plenty of other attractions for visitors. Its long settlement history has left the city with fascinating historic architecture, and the entire place is imbued with an ancient atmosphere. Due to its position near the border with Syria, Harran is also home to a distinct culture more influenced by Syrian Arab traditions. Locals here speak Arabic and Turkish, and their mud-brick architecture can also be found across the border in northeast Syria.

Harran (Akkadian Harrânu, “intersecting roads”; Latin Carrhae): ancient city in Mesopotamia, famous for a temple of the Moon god Sin and the defeat of the Roman general Crassus in 53 BCE (“battle of Carrhae”).

 

How to Get to Harran

The easiest way to get to Harran is from Şanlıurfa by car along the E99 route. Along the way, it is possible to make a short stop to see Sultantepe tumulus.

What to See in Harran

Harran Travel Guide
Harran Travel Guide

Today, Harran is a small village populated by ethnic Arabs. The road from Sanliurfa reaches the west side at the surviving Aleppo Gate, which Saladin restored in 1192. Initially, there were six gates, the others being the Raqqa Gate (towards Syria), the Baghdad Gate, the Mosul Gate, the Anadolu Gate, and the Lion Gate, all except the last named after the destination that the road led to from that gate. Harran is known for its unique “beehive” dwellings with cone-shaped roofs on square bases made of clay without wood. These 4-5 m high houses have had the same basic style for almost 3000 years. Marwan II built the Great Mosque, Ulu Cami, which is believed to be Turkey’s first purpose-built mosque. The 29 m tall square ancient minaret northeast of the Harran hill marks the ruins of this large (104 x 107 m) ancient mosque. The remains include ornately carved stone capitals, arch-stones, and a rebuilt minaret staircase with 105 steps. Still standing are the east wall, mihrab, ablution fountain, and the central arch, as well as the minaret, which also served as an astronomical observatory.

Harran Travel Guide
Harran Travel Guide: Beehive dwellings- Harran village’s beehive houses are a short walk from the ancient ruins. This is the only place in Turkey where you can see this distinctive style of conical building, which was once the vernacular architecture of this region. To see the typical traditional interiors of these houses, head to the Kultur Evi (Culture House), which functions as both a local museum and a restaurant where visitors can get a cold drink, tea, or meal while viewing Harran’s sights.

 

In 1956, archaeologists found 6th-century BCE Babylonian steles turned face down and used as steps at the mosque’s entrances. These steles were part of an original Babylonian temple of Sin. Harran also contains the 8th-century ruins of the first Islamic university south of the mosque. During the late 8th and 9th centuries, Muslim scholars at Harran translated and studied natural sciences, medicine, philosophy, and astronomy. Marwan II built the Harran Citadel on the southeast edge of town on top of the much earlier Babylonian temple of the moon god Sin. His successors substantially rebuilt the citadel, notably the Fatimids in 1059 and Saladin in 1196. A biblical association is related to a well about 1 km northwest of Harran called Bir Yakub, i.e., the Jacob’s Well. Was it here that Jacob kissed Rachel and that Rebecca, later to marry Isaac, drew water for Abraham’s servant? It could be…,

The Site

The old center of ancient Harran, where Abraham is said to have lived, is the primary point for sightseeing. It is now called Altinbasak, and the settlement mound here has evidence of habitation from the 3rd millennium BC onward.

Harran Travel Guide
Harran Travel Guide: Ancient University of Harran and Old Astronomy Tower

The badly decayed town walls, the course of which is still easy to trace, encompassed the central part of the old town. The cratered and undulating terrain here is typical of an abandoned town; a similar landscape is evident in the abandoned old city of Van in eastern Turkey. The ring of walls is broken by seven gates, of which five can still be identified: the Aleppo Gate in the west, which, according to an inscription, was restored by Saladin in 1192; the Lions’ Gate in the north; the Mosul Gate in the west; the Raqqa Gate in the south; and the Roman Gate (Bab ar-Rum).

Harran Travel Guide
Harran Travel Guide: Ruins of the first university in Anatolia, Turkey

The impressive remains of the citadel overlook the southeast of the site. Once a three-story structure, it was restored by the Fatimids in 1032. Three polygonal fortified towers can still be identified, and it is assumed that they occupy the site of the moon temple for which Harran was once so famous. Others have suggested that this shrine was near or even under the Ulu Camii site, just to the northeast. This large square site holds the remnants of a mosque (and the world’s first Islamic university) built by the Umayyad rulers. It was extended in AD 830 and restored in Saladin’s time between 1174 and 1184

Take a Photography Tour to Harran

History

Early History

From the third millennium BCE until medieval times, Harran is mentioned as an important trade center in northern Mesopotamia, situated on the road from the Mediterranean Sea to the heart of Assyria. It is also mentioned as provincial capital in the Assyrian empire (until the late seventh century BCE) and sanctuary of the moon god Sin, well into the third century CE. This sanctuary was called Ehulhul, and was restored by Assyrian rulers like of Šalmaneser (r.858-824) and Aššurbanipal (r.668-631).

Other gods venerated in Harran were Sin’s consort Ningal, the Syrian goddess Atargatis and the Arab goddess Allat (“Mrs. God”). In the Bible, it is mentioned as one of the towns where Abraham stayed on his voyage from Ur to the promised land.The well where a servant of Abraham met Rebecca, who was to become the wife of Isaac, is still shown today.

The End of Assyria

Although the town is mentioned as early as 2000 BCE, the city became famous at the end of the seventh century, when the Babylonian king Nabopolassar defeated an Assyrian force on the banks of the Euphrates, south of Harran (25 July 616). In these years, the Assyrian empire was disintegrating, and the Babylonians and the Median leader Cyaxares were unitedly attacking the ancient empire. In 614, they captured Aššur, and two years later, Nineveh was destroyed. The end of the two Assyrian capitals, however, was not the end of the war, however. A new king, Aššur-uballit, set up a kingdom in Harran and defied the Babylonians.

But he was no match for Nabopolassar, who, according to the Fall of Nineveh Chronicle, “marched to Assyria victoriously” in the fifteenth and sixteenth year of his reign (612-609). Aššur-uballit was forced to leave Harran, but convinced the Egyptians that they had to support his hopeless cause. A large army under command of pharaoh Necho II (r.610-595) advanced to the north. In June 609, Necho and Aššur-uballit tried to recapture Harran and they close to victory, but they had to lift their siege of Harran in August. This was the end of Assyria, its last capital now being part of the Babylonian empire. Harran was now in an area controled by the Medes.

Babylonian Age

The first half of the sixth century, Babylon was ruled by king Nebuchadnezzar (r.605-562). This was the age of Babylonian glory and splendor, and Harran appears to have benefitted as well. The Bible mentions merchants from Harran.However, not everything was fine, and in 555 a coup d’état took place, which led to the accession of king Nabonidus, an old man, who may in fact have been nothing more than a puppet for the real ruler, his son Belsassar.

Nabonidus shocked the religious authorities of Babylon by his dedication to Sin of Harran. A Babylonian king was expected to venerate the supreme god Marduk and take part in the Akitu festival. Nabonidus would have none of it. Instead, he left Babylon and started to live in the Arabian Desert. At the same time, he rebuilt the temple of Sin at Harran, Ehulhul. Meanwhile, the Babylonians felt betrayed and started to sympathize with king Cyrus of Persia, who had already defeated the Medes and Lydians. When he announced to restore the cult of Marduk, the Babylonians sided with him (October 539).

Hellenistic Age

Harran was now part of the Achaemenid Empire, which was replaced two centuries later by that of the Macedonian king Alexander the Great. The conqueror may have visited Harran in the late summer of 331. After Alexander’s death in 323, Harran was part of the empire of the Seleucids, the Macedonian dynasty ruling in Asia. They settled Macedonian veterans at Harran, which remained a recognizable entity after the Seleucid empire had been replaced by that of the Parthians.

In 53 BCE, the Roman general Crassus invaded Parthia. The descendants of the Macedonians sided with him, but nonetheless, he was defeated by a Parthian commander who is called Surena in the Greek and Latin sources, and must have been a member of the Parthian Sûrên clan. The battle of Harran – or Carrhae as the Romans called it – was the beginning of a series of border wars that were to last for centuries.

Multi-religious Identity

During the first half of the 6th century, BCE Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar ruled Harran. The town was home to the Sabian worshippers of the moon god Sin. The mystical Sabian sect was, because of its belief in one God, recognised by Islam as on a par with Christianity and Judaism. The Sabian religion united Neo-Platonic philosophy with Babylonian astrology, considering the planets as embodying spiritual beings created by God as part of the universe, especially the moon, whose god they called Sin. The Sabians had a holy script, ceremony and a kind of communion. Facing always to the north, they prayed at dawn, midday and sunset. The principal deity was worshipped in the form of a pillar or holy stone, and under him were the sun god (Shamash), the moon god (Sin), Saturn (Kronos), Jupiter (Bel), Mars (Ares), Venus (Balti), and Mercury (Nabuq). Every day of the week was dedicated to one of these deities.

The main moon god sanctuary was at Harran where the cult was practised into the 12th century. In 830 CE, the caliph Al-Mamun was filled with indignation at the dress, long hair and scandalous behaviour of the Sabians and gave them the choice of converting to Islam or Christianity or face exile or hanging. One medieval Arab chronicler wrote of their wild practices: “There was no hill that was not moist with the blood of sacrifices and no high place that was empty of libations. Youths in multitudes were given as sacrifices, and maidens slaughtered to female idols and to the sun and the moon and Venus and other luminaries”.

The original moon temple at Harran was one of the holiest sanctuaries of the Middle East, and the Harran astronomers were held in high regard by the brilliant court of the Abbasids in Baghdad in the 9th century. Their religious emblem of a crescent and an eight-pointed star was subsequently adopted by a variety of esoteric sects and the spread of the crescent and star symbol, still so prevalent in the Islamic world, seems to date from that time.

According to the Old Testament, Harran was also the place where Terah and his son Abraham, his grandson Lot and Abraham’s wife Sarah went after leaving Ur. It was 18 centuries before Christ that Abraham was called from Ur of the Chaldees to go to Canaan according to the Old Testament. He stopped at Harran for several years until God told him to move on:

“So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Harran. And Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother’s son and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Harran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan (Genesis 12:4-5).”

Although Abraham went on to Canaan after his father Terah died, some relatives apparently remained. Much later Abraham sent a servant back to Harran to find a wife from among his relatives for his son Isaac. The traditional site of Jacob’s Well, where Rebecca drew water for Abraham’s servant is about one km west of the Harran city walls. According to tradition, Harran was where Jacob laboured for twenty years for his father-in-law Laban. Travellers keen on walking and at the same time supporting the local economy can follow the so-called “Abraham’s Path” that begins in Turkey, runs for 170 km through flattish semi-arid landscapes and incorporates the major sights of Urfa, Göbekli Tepe, the Well of Job, Harran, the Well of Jacob and Sogmatar.

Harran was also part of the Achaemenid Empire, which was replaced two centuries later by that of the Macedonian king Alexander the Great. The conqueror may have visited Harran in the late summer of 331 BCE. After Alexander’s death in 323 BCE, Harran was part of the empire of the Seleucids, the Macedonian dynasty ruling in Asia. They settled Macedonian veterans at Harran, which remained a recognisable entity after the Seleucid empire had been replaced by that of the Parthians.

In 53 BCE, the Roman general Crassus invaded Parthia. The descendants of the Macedonians sided with him, but he was defeated by a Parthian commander, called Surena in the Greek and Latin sources, who must have been a member of the Parthian Sûrên clan. The battle of Harran – or Carrhae as the Romans called it – was the beginning of a series of border wars that were to last for centuries.

The battle of Carrhae

In the year 53 BC, on the plain east of Harran in ancient Mesopotamia, the battle of Carrhae took place. At that battle, the Roman general Marcus Crassus, one of the triumvirs, was defeated by the Parthian general Surena, who fought there by order of king Orodes II. Surena had prepared particularly well for the battle by entering into an alliance with King Artavasdes II of Armenia.

The Greek author Ploutarchos presents the area as a dry desert full of sand dunes in which the Roman legionaries could not get on well. That landscape is still mentioned in many publications as the explanation for the Roman defeat. And it has to be said: the current road towards Şanliurfa, just north of Harran, indeed runs through a desolate and arid area.

In reality, however, Harran lies on the Balikh river, something that Ploutarchos, unlike his contemporary followers, does mention. Not far downstream on Syrian territory lies the Tell Sabi Abbyad, investigated by Dutch archaeologists, from where in Assyrian times the agricultural exploitation of the river valley was led.

It would be an exaggeration to count the Harran area among the most fertile areas of the Near East, but desert sand was not the cause of the Roman defeat. The real reason is the Parthian heavy cavalry and the ability of the Parthian archers to shoot hundreds of thousands of arrows. Underestimation of the military capabilities of the old-eastern armies
is the reason why ancient historians let Crassus’ men march into a non-existent desert.

A partial description of the events can be found in “The History of Rome since its foundation” by the Roman historian Livius who states the following: “Marcus Crassus crossed the Euphrates, brought the war to the Parthian Empire and was defeated in a battle in which he as well as his son died. With the remains of his army, he occupied a hill and was invited by the enemy leader Surena to a meeting to negotiate a truce. However, Crassus was captured and killed to spare him the humiliation of staying alive after the defeat”.

The story of the battle itself is depicted in detail by Ploutarchos in his “Life of Crassus”. The battle itself took place near the river, probably south of the city of Carrhae (Harran). After the defeat, the Romans went to Harran. During the night, they left the place and lost their way in the numerous swamps which forced them to negotiate with the enemy, losing their general, as mentioned above.

The main reason for the Parthian victory had nothing to do with betrayal or with a desert in which the Romans could not deploy their army. These fallacies were simply invented to hide the fact that the Parthians were superior to the Romans in quality and number of men. The Parthians had better supply lines where caravans of dromedaries brought them thousands of arrows to bombard the Romans with. That was the real cause of the Roman defeat.

The death of Crassus meant at the same time that only Pompey the Great and Julius Caesar remained of the once-mighty Roman triumvirate. As there was nothing left to maintain the balance between the two, sooner or later, the two men were led towards a civil war.

Another consequence of the defeat at Carrhae was that the Romans had to make an invasion in the east to avenge themselves. Mark Antony did this with mixed success, but in the end, it was up to Tiberius to regain the eagle standards of the Roman army, an event exuberantly celebrated in Roman propaganda.

In this period, Harran belonged to a small kingdom called Osrhoene, which was part of the larger Parthian Empire and had nearby Edessa (present-day Şanlıurfa) as its capital. The Roman emperor Lucius Verus (r. 161-169) tried to conquer this kingdom and nearby Nisibis and was successful, but an epidemic broke out and made annexation impossible. However, a victory monument was erected in Ephesus, and Harran is shown as one of the subject towns. The Roman emperor Septimius Severus finally added Osrhoene to his realms in 195. The conic domed houses of ancient Harran, which have remained unchanged until the present day, can be seen on the Arch of Septimius Severus on the Forum Romanum in Rome.

His successor Caracalla gave Harran the status of colonia (214) and visited the city in April 217, because he wanted to visit the temple of Sin. Instead, he was murdered by the prefect of the Praetorian guard, Macrinus, who was to be the new emperor.

The Roman emperor Julian the Apostate sacrificed to Sin in 363, at the beginning of his ill-fated campaign against the Sasanian Persians. From now on, the region was a battle zone between the Romans and Sasanians. It remained Roman (or Byzantine) until 639 when the Muslim armies captured the city.

Although Christianity came early to Harran, many local people long retained their ancient Sabian religion. Harran was a remote enclave where non-Christian philosophers sought refuge and taught in peace. In 639, Muslim Arabs conquered Harran. Then about a century later Caliph Marwan II, the last of the Umayyad dynasty, made Harran the capital of the Islamic Empire stretching from Spain to Central Asia. Marwan II rebuilt the city on an oval plan around a central hill. The town was surrounded with a 4 km long and 3 km wide wall with seven gates, which is still partially intact. Marwan erected a government palace, built irrigation canals and renovated the Ulu Cami (Grand Mosque), which ruins can still be seen today.

Caliph Marwan II reigned from 744 until 750. Marwan, the grandson of the fourth Umayyad Caliph, was born in 688 in Upper Mesopotamia where his father was governor. He lived at a time when the Islamic Empire reached his maximum extent under Umayyad Caliph Hisham (724-743). Historical sources describe Marwan as courageous, intimidating, and intelligent. Caliph Hisham appointed Marwan Governor of Azerbaijan and Armenia where he effectively consolidated Muslim control. Marwan brought Islam to Georgia where he was known as Marwan the Deaf because he did not hear the screams for mercy from his opponents. In 736 Marwan sacked and destroyed the late Roman Black Sea enclave Sebastopolis (Sukhumi), effectively driving the Romans out of Georgia. Beginning in 740 Caliph Hisham faced a Shiite rebellion and Berber revolts in North Africa, which effectively cut off the territory of present-day Morocco and Spain from Umayyad rule.

After Hisham’s dead in 743, a savage power struggle erupted within the Umayyad family. Hisham’s immediate successor, Walid II, known as a libertine poet rather than a warrior, was soon displaced. Three different Umayyad caliphs ruled within a year as the Islamic empire descended into chaos. Marwan seized power in 744. To consolidate his control, Marwan moved the capital from Damascus to Harran, reorganised the army and regained full control of Syria in 746. However, the anti-Umayyad sentiment was widespread, especially in Iran and Iraq, and the rival Abbasids had many sympathisers. In 747 the Abbasids under Abu al-Abbas went into open rebellion in Khurasan (modern Iran). On January 25, 750 the Umayyad and Abbasid armies fought at the Zab River (in modern Iraq). Despite larger numbers, morale was low in Marwan’s army. The Abbasid warriors formed up in a formidable battle line with spears pointed outward. The Umayyad cavalry was torn to pieces, and the Umayyad army turned and fled. More than 300 Umayyad fighters died in the battle. Although Marwan managed to escape to Egypt, he was relentlessly pursued by Abbasid forces and killed on the Nile delta. Abu al-Abbas, who was known as al-Saffah (the Slaughterer), moved the capital from Harran to Baghdad and founded the Abbasid dynasty. The Umayyad prince Abd al-Rahman escaped to al-Andalus (Spain) where he established a local ruling dynasty, which survived for three hundred years.

Roman Age

In this period, Harran belonged to a small kingdom called Osrhoene, which was part of the larger Parthian empire and had nearby Edessa as its capital. The Roman emperor Lucius Verus (r.161-169) tried to conquer this kingdom and nearby Nisibis and was successful, but an epidemic broke out and made annexation impossible. However, a victory monument was erected in Ephesus, and Harran is shown as one of the subject towns. The Roman emperor Septimius Severus finally added Osrhoene to his realms in 195. The conic domed houses of ancient Harran, which have remained unchanged until the present day, can be seen on the Arch of Septimius Severus on the Forum Romanum.

His successor Caracalla gave Harran the status of colonia (214) and visited the city in April 217, because he wanted to visit the temple of Sin. Instead, he was murdered by the prefect of the Praetorian guard, Macrinus, who was to be the new emperor.

The Roman emperor Julianus Apostata sacrificed to Sin in 363, at the beginning of his ill-fated campaign against the Sasanian Persians. From now on, the region was a battle zone between the Romans and Sasanians. It remained Roman (or Byzantine) until 639, when the city was captured by the Muslim armies.

Late Antiquity

At that time, the cult of Sin still existed. Another late-antique religion of Harran was Sabianism. Its adherents worshipped Sin, Mars, and Shamal, the lord of the spirits. Women and men had equal rights, and everyone lived ascetic, refraining from several kinds of meat and groceries. After the arrival of the Islam, they probably went to live in the marshes of the lower Tigris and Euphrates, and are still known as Mandaeans.

The ancient city walls surrounding Harran, 4 kilometer long and 3 kilometer wide, have been repaired throughout the ages (a.o. by the Byzantine emperor Justinian in the sixth century), and large parts are still standing. The position of no less than 187 towers has been identified. Of the six gates (Aleppo gate, Anatolian, Arslanli, Mosul, Baghdad, and Rakka gate), only the first one has remained.

The site of Ehulhul, the ancient temple of Sin, has been used as a castle; its ruin can still be visited, but there are no traces of the shrine itself. Nor are there many ancient remains, although elements of ancient buildings have been reused in, for example, the late Umayyad “Paradise Mosque”. The typical, conical houses of Harran that we see on the Arch of Septimius Severus in Rome, still exist.

Archaeological researches

The earliest records of Harran come from the Ebla tablets, c. 2300 BCE. The collection of these tablets consists of 1800 complete clay tablets, 4700 fragments, and many thousand minor chips. They were discovered in the palace archives of the ancient city of Ebla, Syria by Italian archaeologist Paolo Matthiae and his team in 1974–75. The tablets retained many of their contemporary clay tags, so it was easier to reference them. They all date to the period between ca. 2500 BC and the destruction of the city ca. 2250 BC.

The famous T.E. Lawrence better known as Lawrence of Arabia travelled past Harran en route from Aleppo to Urfa in 1909 when he was still an Oxford student. The English author Robert Byron also mentions Harran also in his “Road to Oxiana” in 1937. It is a travelogue, considered by many modern travel writers to be the first example of great travel writing. The word “Oxiana” in the title refers to the region along Afghanistan’s northern border.

In 1950, Seton Lloyd conducted a three-week archaeological survey of Harran. An Anglo–Turkish excavations were initiated in 1951, but they ended in 1956, with the death of D. S. Rice. Unfortunately, these yielded insufficient discoveries about the site’s pre-medieval history or of its supposed Patriarchal era.

The Grand Mosque of Harran (744–750) is the oldest mosque built in Anatolia as a part of the Islamic architecture. The entire plan of the mosque which has dimensions of 104×107 m, along with its entrances, was unearthed during the excavations led by Dr Nurettin Yardimer in 1983. The mosque, which has remained standing up until today, with its 33 meter-high minaret, fountain, mihrab, and eastern wall, has been renovated several times.

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