Harran Archaeological Site

The Harran archaeological site lies in the town of Harran, about 44 kilometres south of Şanlıurfa. The city stands in the middle of the plain that shares its name, at an old crossroads of routes running south to north and east to west. The name is said to mean road in Chaldean, though another view traces it to a founder called Haran, the uncle of the prophet Abraham.

The place is traditionally identified with the Haran of the Bible. Medieval historian Ibn Shaddad wrote that Abraham lived here before travelling to Palestine, and later accounts mention a mosque and a stone bearing his name. The name itself appears in cuneiform tablets from the early second millennium BC found at Kültepe and Mari, and in tablets from Ebla.

Assyrians, Hittites, Neo-Babylonians, Medes, Persians, Hellenistic rulers, Romans, Umayyads and Abbasids all left traces here. The conical mud-brick beehive houses of the surrounding villages are an image many visitors associate with Harran.