Harran

Harran

Harran, located 44 km (24 miles) southeast of Sanliurfa, dates back to the Bronze Age and was founded in the third millennium BCE, making it one of the world’s oldest continuously inhabited settlements.

Harran, located 44 km (24 miles) southeast of Sanliurfa, dates back to the Bronze Age and was founded in the third millennium BCE, making it one of the world’s oldest continuously inhabited settlements. Noteworthy for its mud-brick beehive houses, a style of architecture almost as old as the site itself, Harran first became an important trading centre as early as the 19th century BCE and enjoyed its prime during the Assyrian period. Today, one of the most dramatic of the ruins at the site is that of the University at Harran, an 8th and 9th century centre of learning that was the Islamic world’s first university. The Harran Castle, which remains largely intact, is also worth inspecting and dates to at least the period of the Crusades.