Area: 15.355 km²
Population: 1.362.708 (2000)
Traffic Code: 21
Diyarbakır is a city that must be seen with its long ramparts , Malabadi bridge and it’s typical architecture of wide floored houses to reduce the effects of the heat since the temperature reaches to 40 – 50 C during certain days of the summer months.
Districts: Diyarbakır (center), Bismil, Çermik, Çınar, Çüngüş, Dicle, Eğil, Ergani, Hani, Hazro, Kocaköy, Kulp, Lice, Silvan.
How to Get
Highway : Voyages from Diyarbakır to almost every region of Turkey is possible by coach transportation. Coach station placed at city center. Travelers transported to city center by minibuses.
Coach Station Tel: (+90-412) 221 10 27
Airway : Airport is 3 kilometer from city center. There are regular flights to Ankara and Istanbul.
Airport Tel: (+90-412) 228 84 01 - 228 84 02
Archeology Museum: First museum of Diyarbakır was opened in 1934 in the Senceriye (Zinciriye) Theology school, an extension of Ulu Mosque. In 1985 it is transported to a new building on Elazığ Avenue. Traces remaining from Neolithic Age, Old Bronze Age, Urartu, Asurian, Roman, Byzantine, Seljuk, Akkoyunlu and Ottoman periods have been exhibited with a chronological order. Coins, local materials, ethnographic works of art, the majority of which remained from Artuklu period have also been exhibited in the museum.
Museum Tel:(+90-412) 221 27 55
Ziya Gökalp Museum - House: One of the samples of typical civil architecture of Diyarbakır, this house was built in 1808. This house where the famous intellectual Ziya Gökalp was born in in 1876, was bought from his inheritors in 1953, and opened to visit on March,23 1956 as a museum - house. Beside the items belonging to the poet, ethnographic works of art of the region are exhibited at the museum.
Cahit Sıtkı Tarancı Museum - House (Culture Museum): The Musuem is in the Diyarbakır city center, at Cami-i Kebir quarter, on Cahit Sıtkı Tarancı street, dated to 1820. One of the most beautiful sample of typical civil architecture of Diyarbakır, it havesurvived to our present day.
Museum Tel : (+90-412) 223 08 02
Ramparts and Ruins
Diyarbakır Ramparts: The Diyarbakır ramparts are famous for being the longest second rampart after the great wall of China, with 5.5 km long and 7 - 8 m high. Black Basalt Ramparts composed of 16 castles and 5 main gates are the most attractive places of the city. Magnificent sample of mediaeval military architecture, these ramparts were decorated with inscriptions and embossments.
Ramparts were restored by Byzantine Emperor Costantinus in 349 B.C. But the exact date of their construction is not known.
Çayönü Ruins: It is on Elazığ highway, 65 km north west of Diyarbakır, in Ergani county, the antique city is dating back to the Neolithic Age, that is its long history reaches back to 9000 years ago. It is estimated that this place of settlement is one of the first permanent settlement places. Findings that have been brought into light around the primitive settlement place of Çayönü, grind stones, flint stones, various items made from bone and clay are exhibited at Diyarbakır Archeology Museum.
Bridges
Malabadi Bridge: It is near the Silvan county on the Batman brook. Among the stone ramparts in the world, it is the one with the widest arch.
Religious Monuments
Mosques and Churches
Magnificent with their historical and architectural properties, Nebi Mosque and Safa Mosque are the most famous mosques of Diyarbakır. Ulu Mosque built by Sultanı Melik Shah of Seljuks, displays an interesting outlook with its original design and usage of either Byzantine or older architectural materials and is one of the oldest mosques of Turkey.
77 km east to Diyarbakır, in Silvan county and built in 1185 Ulu Mosque is worth seeing with its well - bred embossments decorated on gate arches.
Diyarbakır Mosques and Churches
Among the most important churches of Diyarbakır, Mart Thoma, Meryem Ana (the Virgin Mary Church), Kırklar Church and Mart Pityon Church can be mentioned. Meryem Ana Church (the Virgin Mary Church), still been used by a few Süryani (Christian) community in the city.
Diyarbakır has important inns because of its being one of the center of the Historical Silk Road. Inside the Deliller Inn, Hasan Pasha, Çiftehan and Yeni Inn, there are shopping stores that are selling rugs, carpets and silver embroidery as it was usual in history.
Caravanserai: Caravanserai is worth seeing with its architecture and interior structure, which is restored and formed as hotel.
Çermik Thermal Resort
Location: Just outside Cermik, around 90km west of Diyarbakir in South Eastern Anatolia.
Water temperature: 48°C
pH value: 6.3
Physical and chemical properties: Bicarbonate, chlorine, carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulphide and mildly radioactive.
Recommended: Applications Drinking and bathing
Helps to heal: Rheumatism, skin and respiratory conditions, gynaecological disorders, joint pain and calcium build-up.
Accommodation: Hotel with 100 beds
- Wandering around Diyarbakır Ramparts,
- Seeing Malabadi Bridge,
- Seeing Old Diyarbakır Houses
- Visiting Cahit Sıtkı Tarancı Archeology Museums,
- Eating kaburga meal at Selim Amca, drinking root of liquorice plant,
- Buying Diyarbakır rush mat
Rough and dry terrestrial climate is domiant in Diyarbakır province.