Harran Attractions

The Site

Foremost is the settlement hill at Harran with evidence of third millennium B.C. habitation. Excavations are still taking place on a mound near the hill where the town is located and there is a possibility that an older acropolis will be found underneath. The badly decayed town walls, the course of which is still easy to trace, encompassed the major part of the old town; the cratered and undulating terrain is typical of an abandoned town. A similar landscape is evident in the abandoned old town of Van. The ring of walls is broken by seven gates, of which five can still be identified: the Aleppo Gate in the west which according to an inscription was restored by Saladin in 1192, the Lions' Gate in the north, the Mosul Gate in the west, the Raqqa Gate in the south and the Roman Gate (Bab ar-Rum). The southeast of the site is overlooked by the impressive remains of the citadel. Once a three-story structure, it was restored by the Fatimids in 1032. Three polygonal fortified towers can still be identified and it is assumed that they occupy the site of the moon temple for which Harran was once so famous. Others have suggested that this shrine was situated near or*Ulu Camieven under the Ulu Cami, whose striking but few remains dominate the northeast of the site. The large square site was once a mosque which was built by the Omayyads. It was extended in 830 and restored in Saladin's time between 1174 and 1184.

History

Harran receives a mention in the Old Testament (Genesis 11:31 and 12) as the place where Abraham and his tribe stayed for several years on his journey from Ur to Canaan. Harran Must have existed at that time ca. 18th century B.C.. Excavations have confirmed that the site was settled in the third millennium B.C. and clay tablets dating from the 18th century B.C. mention the town and other neighboring settlements which frequently bear the names of Abraham's relatives (Genesis 11:10-31): Harran (Abraham's brother), Peleg (Serug's grandfather), Serug (Abraham's great-grandfather), Nahor (Abraham's grandfather or brother), Terach (Abraham's father).

In subsequent years Harran became a center for sun and moon worshippers. A double temple to Sin ("shahr" = "moon") and Shamash (sun) dates from the 16th century B.C.. Domination by different nations (Mitanni Empire ca. 1400 and the 13th century Assyrian Empire) did little to change Harran's status as a moon-worshipping center. The Babylonians (Nabonid 556-539 B.C.) also encouraged the Sin cult. Even the successors to Alexander the Great and the Romans revered the moon god. The town was known in those days as Karrai and later Carrhae. In 53 B.C., the Parthian Orodes II annihilated the army of Crassus here. In Harran in A.D. 217 Caracalla was murdered on the way from the temple to the ruler's palace and in 296/297, the Sassanids defeated the Roman army under the leadership of Galerius. It was 382 before all heathen shrines were destroyed by Theodosius the Great and that included the Sin Temple at Harran (Charrae). The Omayyad caliph Marvan II resided in Harran from 744 to 750 and he is thought to have established the Ulu Cami and the oldest Islamic university. A Mongol invasion in 1260 destroyed the town and it did not recover until the Ottomans gained control in 1516. Sabians worshipped astral bodies at a shrine in neighboring Sumatar (now Sumatar Harabesi) until the early Middle Ages (12th century records mention a Sin Temple).