Urfa - Town walls

To the east of the old town of Urfa near the Harran road, modest remains of the old town wall (Mahmutoglu Kulesi) are still visible. The course of the wall has scarcely changed since Roman times. Whenever the town's river, known as Karakoyun Deresi (Skirtos in antiquity, later Daisan), burst its banks, large parts of the town's fortifications disappeared under water, so in Byzantine times it was re-routed. Barrages have been constructed from large stone slabs in the north and east of the town and they have prevented further flooding.