Photos

Hasankeyf is a small village at the Tigris River, on the road between Batman and Midiyat. A modern bridge now spans that river, but the impressive remains of a much older bridge are standing tall. High rocks house thousands of rock houses, and support a mosque and the remains of an extensive ancient city, now in ruins. The town was founded in Roman times as a border post with Persia. It started out as Cephe or Kiphas, and was renamed Hisn Kayfa by the Arabs who conquered it in 640. Later Artokids and Ajjadubids ruled, until the Mongols plundered it so thoroughly in 1260 that it never regained its glory. The age of the old bridge is unknown, it has been restored in 1116 by the Ortokid Fahr ed-Din Kara Arslan. In the Kale or citadel one can find the remains of an Ortokid palace (not very impressive, though) and a Ulu or Great Mosque. For years the town was expected to be drowned by the waters of another artifical lake, like there are a lot in these areas (the Ilusu Dam Project). The last I heard was that there were troubles in financing that project, partly because of the growing protests against the cultural vandalism involved. I hope this treasure will be visible for many years to come. However, I later read that in August 2006 the decision was made to flood the place after all. Hopefully the 40 million euro reserved for saving cultural treasures will help save some of what you can see here, but much will disappear.