Glimpse of Historical Harput & Elazig

Hi everybody! Recently I had a trip to a town in Eastern Turkey called Harput. Although it’s no match for Indri’s KL and Bangkok visit, I just wanted to share here a few pics that I took from the town :P

Harput is very close to a central city in Eastern Turkey called Elazig and has lots of very old historical buildings. The region belonged to various Turkish states during the times of Crusader Kingdoms, around 800 years ago. One of the Turkish princes of the time, Balak Ghazi, was a very successful commander and administrator. Among his other deeds, he took prisoner Josselin of Courtenaty, the Latin Count of neighbouring Christian Countship of Edessa in 1122 and later the Christian King Baudouin of Jerusalem in 1123. So in addition to his other successes he became a local hero, commemorated even today with a large stone statue at a dominant hill in Harput overlooking Elazig.

From the very same spot, here's a view of Elazig.

This is me from the same spot :)

There are also several very old mosques in Harput. One is callsed Sara Hatun Mosque, named after the charitable noble woman who was the mother of the Turkish Akkoyunlu Sultanate in the region in 1465. Them mosque is small but in remarkable shape if you consider its age.

Yet another and older one is the Ulu Mosque (Ulu meaning, great/ holy/ sublime in Turkish), built astonishingly in 1157 by a Sultan this time of a Khanate called Artuklu, right after the time of Balak Ghazi. Even if you're not a history geek to keep all these names, I found the age of the mosque incredible, and that it's still in operation! Also remarkable is that the minaret isn't straight, little bit leaning but still standing. I took this picture minutes before it started raining, as you can see from the gathering clouds. The leaning of the minaret is only slightly noticeable at this angle. One final mosque I will mention is the Kursunlu Mosque. This one is relatively newer, having been built "only" in 1739 during the time of the Ottoman Empire. Its name (Kursunlu) means "leaded", as the dome is covered with lead.


There is one more structure in Harput yet older than any mosque or any building for that matter in town. That's the Citadel of Harput. Originally built by the very ancient Anatolian Kingdom of the Urartu, more than 2500 years(that's 25 centuries!) ago, waay before the Turks arrived in Anatolia. Later, each conqueror (God knows their number) repaired and perhaps enlarged/modified the structure, as it was built on a commanding spot and its utility unchanging over the millenia, down to our times. It's in remarkable good shape, and as you walk through Harput towards it, you can understand why everybody preferred to keep it working all this time. Among the notable guests of the Citadel are the Count Josselin and King Baudouin among many others down the ages. Notice the flagpole at the top of the castle; you can go up there along a winding path starting from the entrance gate at the bottom right, to arrive at the top some 10 minutes later, where I took the other picture.

One final place that you can go in Harput is a traditional Eastern Anatolian Turkish home, kept as a museum next to the Ulu Mosque. It's actually a smal house but enough to give you a glimpse of life back then. In those days, where winters were long and no mass entertainment was available, they put red hot coal pieces in a bowl (seen under the arch) and put ashes over the contents to keep them hot. They then placed the bowl under this low table, around which all the members of the family gathered sitting, with their feet under the long table cloth piece (which was thick enough to act a s a blanket and long enough to extend out to cover the legs of people sitting), as seen in the picture. The stories exchanged by the fire, as well as the fire itself, kept people warm and happy through many nights.

Finally, here's a picture of one of the rooms upstairs from the arched room. A very old (like 200+ years) authentic flintlock double barrel hunting rifle as well as a copy of the Quran within emprodered cloth covering are on the wall. Also typical is the low sofa. In the other picture is me at the door of the same room. The pictures on the wall are there perhaps to remind the visitor of the changed times.

Well, that was a short glimpse of a small but a very historical town in Eastern Turkey. Sometimes small towns hide their treasures better than you expect, so this trip proved to me the value of straying out of the main tourist routes once in a while. I hope you enjoyed this small recollection too :) Cheers!