“Ruined city” Population: 118,750
Other names: Maximianopolis, Tilla (Suryani), Constantina (Roman/Byzatine), Weranşar (Kurdish)
Favourite son: İbrahim Paşa (tribal leader)
As with its namesake Viranşehir in the outskirts of Mersin, time has not been kind to the Viranşehir between Şanlıurfa and Mardin. The main reason to come here should be to visit the Dikmeler, the remains of what was once a huge octagonal Byzantine martyrion dating back to the fourth or fifth century. Alas, all that remains is a single one of the eight stone columns that once surrounded it together with a few pillars and other pieces of stone scattered on the ground around it. It’s a site for specialists only.
If you do come here you might want to take a quick look at the elegant single-storey İbrahim Paşa Konağı in the town centre. It’s now used as a public library but was once the summer home of a powerful local warlord. Built towards the end of the 19th century, it looks like a lesser work by one of the Balyans of İstanbul.
The same İbrahim Paşa was also responsible for the austere Tekke Cami and the Hamidiye Kışla (Barracks), still occupied by the army.
There’s a very pleasant park beside the town’s Kültür Merkezi. Scattered about it are the remains of what must once have been another Byzantine church.
The city sits on the northern edge of the Tek Tek Dağları, a notoriously inhospitable stretch of semi-desert.
İbrahim Paşa (1843-1908) was the leader of the Kurdish Milli aşiret (tribe) and became a close ally of Abdülhamid II, helping him control the remote eastern outskirts of his empire. Consequently when the sultan fell in 1908, so did the paşa too.
Sleeping
Vefa Park Hotel. Tel: 0414-511 0404
Grand İpekyol Hotel. Tel: 0414-511 4343
Transport info
There are regular minibuses from the lower level of Urfa’s bus station to Viranşehir where the terminal is in the town centre near the park.
If you want to visit the Dikmeler ask the bus driver to put you off near the Halime Hatun Kız Anadolu İmam Hatip Lisesi (high school) before you get to the town centre. There’s no sign to show the way.
Day trip destinations
Kızlar Sarayı (Kasr’ul Binat)
