For thousands of years, people have been communicating through language, passing on knowledge and techniques through oral transmission of what they have learned, with all the erroneous distortions of meaning by omitting or adding details of the original content.

The myths surrounding the Rum Kalesi Castle in the Yavuzeli district of the Turkish province of Gaziantep reach far back into history. Various epochs of up to 3,000 years are known to date. Archaeologists have only begun to extensively explore the ruins in recent years.

The small town of Şırnak (known as Şirnex in Kurdish) is located in the triangle formed by Syria, Iraq and Turkey.

In the past we have reported several times about the Mor Gabriel Monastery in the south-east of Turkey and the problems of the expropriation of some monastery areas. Now the property is back in Syrian Orthodox hands.

The current day-to-day politics in the Syrian conflict has caused further problems in the province of Şırnak and thus its provincial capital of the same name due to the common border with Syria after the long-standing Kurdish conflicts, in a downright tragic way, because thousands of Syrian refugees sought their salvation by fleeing the country.

Once founded by the Hittites with the name Kummulu, Samosata later became the capital of the Assyrian Empire.

A few kilometres north of the newly built Birecik dam, two larger settlements faced each other on the banks of the Euphrates in ancient times: Apamea on the left and Seleukeia / Zeugma on the right bank.

Like the years before the 14th of July, the day of “Appearance of the great Gods” will be celebrated at Mount Nemrud having some meetings and festivals.

Sanlıurfa as a city is mostly known by the Europeans with her antique name, Edessa. Sanlıurfa is the central part of a city in Turkey with a population of about 390.000 and is located in the hot climate zone in southeast Anatolia. In geographical terms, she is part of Northern Mesopotamia.

Gaziantep province, founded on a fertile land with a moderate climate, is the most important industrial and cultural centre of the region. There are architectural structures in the city which show the remains of a rich history.

We had designated Göbekli Tepe as the most important destination and the highlight of our Şanlıurfa journey. We had as such communicated with an archaeologist, Mr. Klaus Schmidt for this purpose.

The Atatürk dam (Turkish Atatürk Barajı) on the Euphrates is the first finished, most important and largest of the 22 dams of the Southeast Anatolia project GAP (Güneydogu Anadolu Projesi) in Turkey.

Older Near Eastern roots indicate the shape of the northern Mesopotamian weather god Hadad, Babylonian Adad, who was depicted standing on a bull with a double ax and a lightning bolt.

Nemrut Mountain, much better known as the Mountain of Nemrut, is in the province of Adiyaman to the west of the Euphrates valley in the south east of Turkey and is one of the most important tourist sites in the country.

The Diyarbakir city walls were first constructed by the Roman Emperor Constantine. The city walls were enlarged during the Seljuk and Ottoman periods and 82 towers were added. These walls are the second longest walls in the world after the Great Wall of China and actually rank first in terms of wall height.

Batman, known under the name Elih in the Middle Ages and up to the 1950s, is the capital of the Turkish province of Batman in southeastern Turkey.

Every country, including Turkey, needs energy in the form of electricity in immense amounts.

In the long history of the Siirt region, there were a multitude of peoples who settled the country or only appeared as occupiers just to be replaced by history.

Kilis is a city in South-Central Turkey on the border with Syria and capital of Kilis Province. It is generally associated with the city of Kilisi, noted in Assyrian texts. The Öncüpınar Syrian border crossing is 5 km (3 mi) to the south and the large city of Gaziantep is 60 km (37 mi) to the north.