Sanliurfa Travel and Tourism Guide

Şanlıurfa is known that the city of the prophets,

One of the oldest cities on the world, the city where Adam and Eve lived, the city where Abraham was borned and lived, the city where Moses lived, the city where Elijah lived, the city where Jethro lived, the city where Job lived.

The city has been known by many names: ܐܘܪܗܝ, Urhāy in Syriac, Riha in Kurdish, الروها, Ar-Ruha in Arabic, Ուռհա, Urha in Armenian, Ορρα, Orrha in Greek (also Ορροα, Orrhoa). For a while it was named Callirrhoe or Antiochia on the Callirhoe (Greek: �'ντιόχεια η επί Καλλιρρόης). During Byzantine rule it was named Justinopolis. Although it is often best known by the name given it by the Seleucids, Εδεσσα, Edessa.

'Şanlı' means great, glorious, dignified in Turkish and Urfa was officially re-named Şanlıurfa (Urfa the Glorious) by the Turkish Grand National Assembly in 1984, in recognition of the local resistance in the Turkish War of Independence.

Şanlıurfa is the gateway of GAP geograpically, and with its industry, the trade volume has helped to develop GAP. Economically it effects 18 other cities.