Sanliurfa: what to see, where to stay and how to get around
Some 11,600 years ago, before farming, pottery or writing, people in the hills around Urfa raised great circles of carved stone pillars. Who they were and why they built is still argued over, and new sites keep turning up across the area that Turkey now calls the Taş Tepeler, the stone hills. This day starts in the museum, where the finds are, then drives out to the two best-known sites and back across the Harran plain. Go early: the sites are open to the sky and the summer heat is fierce.
A short history of Sanliurfa
About 15 kilometres from the city lies the hill of Göbekli Tepe, where about 11,500 years ago circles of carved stone pillars were built, among the oldest structures found anywhere in the world; in 2018 the site was declared a World Heritage Site. In antiquity the city was called Edessa, and it was a centre of Syriac Christianity. According to Muslim tradition Abraham was born here, and at the pools of sacred fish in the city centre it is said that Nimrod threw him into the fire. In 1098 Edessa became the first Crusader state, and in 1144 Zengi captured it. In 1984 the title "Şanlı", "glorious", was added to its name for its struggle in the Turkish War of Independence.
The ten best sights in Sanliurfa
1Göbekli TepeThe oldest known monumental site on earth, 20 minutes from town; come early, there is little shade
2Karahan TepeGöbekli Tepe's sister site, an hour east; carved heads and pillars cut straight from the rock
3BalıklıgölThe heart of old Urfa; the carp are sacred and nobody fishes them, but you can feed them
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4Mevlid-i Halil Cave
The cave where tradition says Abraham was born; separate entrances for men and women, dress modestly
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5Ayn Zeliha Lake
The second sacred pool, quieter, a few steps west of Balıklıgöl
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6Rızvaniye Mosque
Its long arcade frames the fish pool; the classic photo of Urfa
7Şanlıurfa CastleClimb for the view over the pools and the old town; the two Roman columns stand on top
8Şanlıurfa Archaeology MuseumOne of Turkey's largest museums; see it before Göbekli Tepe, the finds are here
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9Haleplibahçe Mosaic Museum
Roman villa floors shown in place, next door to the archaeology museum
10Hz. Eyyüp MakamıThe cave and well linked with Job, 2 km south of the pools
Scan with your phone camera to open the map there
What is an audio walk?
Tours in Sanliurfa →A guide in your headphones: open the walk on our site, walk from stop to stop, and at each one your phone tells its story. No guide, no group, and free. This is the first walk in Sanliurfa:
Free walking tours in Sanliurfa
Göbekli Tepe and the stone hills
Some 11,600 years ago, before farming, pottery or writing, people in the hills around Urfa raised great circles of carved stone pillars. Who they were and why they built is still argued over, and new sites keep turning up across the area that Turkey now calls the Taş Tepeler, the stone hills. This day starts in the museum, where the finds are, then drives out to the two best-known sites and back across the Harran plain. Go early: the sites are open to the sky and the summer heat is fierce.
- Şanlıurfa Archaeology Museum · The museum holds the Urfa Man, a life-size limestone figure about 11,000 years old, found in 1993 during building work near Balıklıgöl. He is often called the oldest known life-size statue of a human.
- Göbekli Tepe · A survey in the 1960s noted the hill but took it for a medieval cemetery. Only in 1995 did the German archaeologist Klaus Schmidt start digging and find T-shaped pillars up to about 5.5 metres high, carved with foxes, boars, snakes and vultures. It became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2018.
- Karahan Tepe · Here the builders did not raise all their pillars; they cut many of them out of the bedrock, leaving them standing in a sunken room. A human head carved from the rock looks out from one wall over the pillars.
- Şuayb City · Local Muslim tradition links the ruins with the prophet Shuayb, who is usually identified with Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses. The houses and tombs are cut into the limestone, and some are still used as stores and stables.
- Han el Ba'rur · The caravanserai stood on the medieval road between Harran and the east, a walled courtyard where merchants and their animals spent the night. It stands alone on the plain now, with no village around it.
- Harran Great Mosque ruins · The mosque is credited to Marwan II, the last Umayyad caliph, who made Harran his capital in the 740s. Its square minaret still stands over the field of ruins.
In the footsteps of Abraham
In Muslim tradition, and in an old Jewish one too, Urfa is Ur Kasdim, the city where Abraham was born; most scholars place biblical Ur in southern Iraq, but here the story is lived every day. The pools, the cave and the castle hill all belong to the tale of Abraham and the tyrant Nimrod. The route ends at Harran, the Haran of Genesis, where Abraham's family settled on its way to Canaan. The town part is on foot; Harran is a 45-minute drive south.
- Mevlid-i Halil Cave · The tradition says Abraham's mother hid here to give birth, because Nimrod had ordered every newborn boy killed. Pilgrims drink the water that seeps in the cave, believed to heal.
- Şanlıurfa Castle · The two Corinthian columns on top are called Nimrod's throne; from here, the story goes, Abraham was hurled into the fire. One column carries a Syriac inscription for Queen Shalmath of the kingdom of Edessa.
- Balıklıgöl · When Abraham fell, the legend says, God turned the fire into water and the burning logs into fish. That is why the carp are sacred, and why people say anyone who eats one will go blind.
- Ayn Zeliha Lake · Zeliha was Nimrod's daughter, who loved Abraham and threw herself into the fire after him. Where she fell, the legend says, this second pool opened.
- Hz. Eyyüp Makamı · Local tradition places here the cave where Job lived through his suffering, and the well whose water healed him at the end. The story is Job's, the Iyov of the Bible.
- Harran · Genesis tells that Terah took Abraham, Sarah and Lot from Ur Kasdim to Haran, and died there; Abraham left for Canaan at 75. Later Jacob fled to his uncle Laban in Haran and married Leah and Rachel here.
Edessa of the churches and the bazaar
Before it was Urfa, the city was Edessa, capital of a small kingdom and one of the first centres of Christianity, where Syriac grew into a written language of the church. Churches turned into mosques, mosques built on churches, Armenian and Syriac quarters emptied in the last century: the old stones of the centre carry all of it. The walk ends in the covered bazaar and the courtyard of the customs inn, where the tea and the bitter coffee are part of the visit. Everything here is within half an hour on foot.
- Haleplibahçe Mosaic Museum · The mosaics were found in 2006, when the ground was dug for a new park. Among them is a floor of Amazon queens, each named in Greek letters.
- Fırfırlı Mosque · The building was the Armenian Church of the Twelve Apostles. After Urfa's Armenians were gone it served other uses, and it was turned into a mosque in the 1950s.
- Reji Church · The Syriac church of Saints Peter and Paul was finished in 1861. It takes its name from the Régie, the Ottoman tobacco monopoly, which later used it as a tobacco store.
- Ulu Cami · The mosque stands where the Church of St Stephen stood, and its octagonal tower is thought to be the church's old bell tower, kept as the minaret.
- Urfa Bazaar · Isot, the dark Urfa pepper, is sun-dried by day and wrapped up at night so it sweats, which gives it its smoky, almost chocolate taste. Every spice shop in the bazaar sells it.
- Gümrük Han · The inn was built in the 1560s by the Ottoman governor Behram Pasha as the customs house of the city. Its courtyard is now a tea garden where men sit for hours over tea and backgammon.
Getting to Sanliurfa and getting around
- Şanlıurfa GAP Airport · Flights from Istanbul and Ankara land here, about 35 minutes north of town
- Şanlıurfa Otogar · Long-distance coaches and the minibuses to Harran leave from here, north of the centre
Cheap eats in Sanliurfa
Urfa is the kebab capital of the south-east, and it starts early: grilled liver on skewers is a breakfast here, wrapped in thin bread with raw onion and parsley. The pepper on every table is isot, dark and smoky, the city's own. After the meal comes tea in a glass, or mırra, a bitter coffee so strong it is poured a sip at a time. Food is cheap by Israeli standards, and the best places are tiny.
- Ciğerci Aziz Usta · Liver skewers off the grill with flatbread, about 400-600 TL a portion
- İkiler Ciğer Salonu · Another liver grill by the bazaar, about 400-600 TL
- Gümrük Han tea garden · Tea about 25-40 TL, mırra coffee about 60-100 TL, in the old inn's courtyard
- Balıklıgöl tea gardens · Tea by the sacred pool, about 25-40 TL a glass
- Büyük Mağara Cafe · Tea and snacks in a cave at the foot of the castle, about 30-150 TL
- Dilim Pastanesi · Baklava and künefe on the main street, about 150-300 TL a plate
Museums in Sanliurfa
- Şanlıurfa Archaeology Museum · Göbekli Tepe's pillars and the Urfa Man; allow two hours
- Haleplibahçe Mosaic Museum · Roman mosaics under a roof, walked over on glass
- Urfa City Museum · Old Urfa homes, crafts and the sıra night, in a restored house
- Reji Church · A restored 19th-century Syriac church; check if an exhibition is on
- Göbekli Tepe · Walkways under a big roof circle the enclosures
Things to do in Sanliurfa with kids
- Balıklıgöl · Buy a cup of fish food from the stalls and watch the carp boil up
- Harran beehive houses · Mud-brick domes children can walk into; some are open as small museums
- Şanlıurfa Castle · A climb to the top for kids who like steps and views
- Göbekli Tepe · Look for the fox, the boar and the vulture carved on the pillars
- Atatürk Dam viewpoint · A wall of rock and water on the Euphrates; a big stop for the way west
Holy places in Sanliurfa
- Mevlid-i Halil Cave · Abraham's birth cave by tradition; women cover their hair
- Rızvaniye Mosque · The arcade on the fish pool; built in the early 18th century
- Hz. Eyyüp Makamı · Job's cave and well, quiet and local
- Ulu Cami · A church tower turned minaret, off the bazaar
- Harran · The Haran of Abraham, Rebecca's family and Jacob
Where to eat in Sanliurfa
- Cevahir Konukevi · Dinner with a sıra night of music in an old stone mansion; ask when it runs
- Gülhan Restaurant · Urfa kebab and lahmacun in the new town
- Çift Mağara · Dinner in a double cave cut into the castle rock
- Beyaz Köşk · Kebab and mezze close to Balıklıgöl
- Zahter · Local dishes on the main street
- Sembol Ocakbaşı · Kebab grilled at the counter in front of you
Frequently asked questions about Sanliurfa
What is there to see in Sanliurfa?
The top sights in Sanliurfa are Göbekli Tepe, Karahan Tepe and Balıklıgöl. The full list on this page has 10 sights, each with a photo and a short note.
How many days do you need in Sanliurfa?
Three to four days are enough to see the best of Sanliurfa without rushing, including at least one walking tour.
Is there a free walking tour in Sanliurfa?
Yes. sleepntrip has 3 free audio walks in Sanliurfa, with no guide and no group: your phone tells the story at every stop. The first one: Göbekli Tepe and the stone hills.
How do you get to Sanliurfa and get around?
The main ways are Şanlıurfa GAP Airport and Şanlıurfa Otogar. Full details are in the transport section on this page.
Looking for a hotel in Sanliurfa for your dates?
Only rooms that meet nine conditions, up to $80 a night.