Şanlıurfa (often simply known as Urfa in daily language), formerly cited as Edessa or in Kurdish; Riha , or in Armenian Urhai, Arabic الرها al-Raha) is a city with 462,923 inhabitants (2006 estimate) in south-eastern Turkey, and the capital of Şanlıurfa Province. Urfa is situated on a plain under big open skies, about eighty kilometres east of the Euphrates River. The climate features extremely hot, dry summers and cool, moist winters. The urban ...
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Şanlıurfa (often simply known as Urfa in daily language), formerly cited as Edessa or in Kurdish; Riha , or in Armenian Urhai, Arabic الرها al-Raha) is a city with 462,923 inhabitants (2006 estimate) in south-eastern Turkey, and the capital of Şanlıurfa Province. Urfa is situated on a plain under big open skies, about eighty kilometres east of the Euphrates River. The climate features extremely hot, dry summers and cool, moist winters. The urban population of Urfa is mainly Kurdish while the outlying regions are mixed Turkish and Arabian and to a lesser degree Zaza, Yezid, Armenian and Jewish.
The city has been known by many names in history: Ուռհա in Armenian,Urhai in Aramaic, ܐܘܪܗܝ, Riha in Syriac, الرها, ar-Ruhā in Arabic, Ορρα, Orrha in Greek (also Ορροα, Orrhoa). For a while it was named Callirrhoe or Antiochia on the Callirhoe (Greek: Αντιόχεια η επί Καλλιρρόης). During Byzantine rule it was named Justinopolis. Although, prior to the Turkish rule, it was often best known by the...
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