Mardin

The visit to Mesopotamia ; As the city of Mardin is situated between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers it is considered as the center of Turkish Mesopotamia. The city is next to the north of the historical and mythical region of Mesopotamia and at the same time to the southeast of Turkey. Mardin, due to its cultural structure and geographical position, is one of the most different cities that you can know. The Turkish, Kurdish and Assyrian inhabitants of Mardin of different religions, Muslims, Christians and Orthodox all live together in peace.

History of Mardin ;  The ancient city of Dara of the Persians is the most important visit as the oldest urbanization whose remains are in the archaeological museum of Mardin. In the history of Mardin one can mention the cultures of the time of Gobeklitepe (10,000 BC, where the story begins), Assyrians, Hittites, Urarts, Medes, Romans, Byzantines, Turks of Artuklu, Selcuklu, Arabs, Persians , Mongols, etc. After conquering by the Umayyad armies in 641 came the Islamic period. But most of the constructions were made in the time of Lord Artuq in the 12th century. For example the Great Mosque (Ulu Cami) built in 1176 from a minaret with inscriptions from the Qur'an.

#senderosfotograf : For Instagram you can take beautiful photos of the Mesopotamian plain from the terraces of the houses. Especially strolling through the narrow streets, getting lost in the neighborhoods, the historic houses with the original architecture such as the Cumbali ev, Ulucami, the minarets and the marked ones appear. If they are lucky a mule from the transport or garbage will cross them.

Architecture in Mardin ;  The architecture of the typical Mardin stone houses is a cultural mix of Turks and Arabs. More than history, Mardin is famous for where religions and cultures intersect. Mardin with its mosques, historical madrassas, churches, monasteries and original architecture. The dome of its architecture is the symbol of the city.

The monastery and churches ;  Worth visiting are the Deyr-ul Zafaran Monastery (Mor Hananyo), the Church of Forty Martyrs (Kırklar Kilisesi- Mor Benham), the Mor Gabriel Monastery located in Midyat (the oldest Syrian Orthodox monastery in the world in the year 297 ), Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the Republic of Turkey, highly respected Syriacs and allowed them to perform their prayers.

The Mosques and Madrassas ;  (Medrese is an education and science complex) Holy Mosque (Ulu Cami), Sehidiye Mosque, Melik Mahmut Mosque, Latifiye Mosque and Necmeddin Mosque, Kasimiye Madrasa, Zinciriye Madrassa are among the important places. In the madrassas, which were the Artuchid universities, they were studying the book "Otomato", written in the 12th century by Al-Jazari, the master of robot science.

What to buy and what to eat ;  The art of working in filigree with silver wire called “telkari”, handmade objects. There the culinary culture is very rich, exotic spices, almond caramel, oven-dried bread (Peksimet), almond soap, asetuna, pomegranate sauce, dried figs, grape must pudding (Harire), Syriac muffins (Suryani coregi). Do not return without trying stuffed lamb ribs and “sembusek”, known as “Mardin pizza”. In some restaurants the music of Reyhani of traditional dances would accompany them. Syriac home-made wine is made from grapes from the Tur Abdin region.