Halfeti
A Town On The Euphrates Whose Lower Quarter Was Flooded By The Birecik Dam Reservoir In 2000, With A Minaret Standing Out Of The Water And The Fortress Of Rumkale Upstream · Halfeti, Sanliurfa
In 2000 the reservoir behind the Birecik dam rose and took the lower half of Halfeti with it. What is left is a town on a steep bank above green Euphrates water, with the minaret of the drowned mosque standing out of the middle of it - and boats that take you out to circle the minaret, on past submerged houses at Savasan whose upper walls break the surface, and up to Rumkale, an enormous fortress on a promontory where the Euphrates meets a tributary. It is the third drowned place in this folder after Hasankeyf and Yusufeli, and the only one worth seeding, because here the flooding is the attraction rather than the reason there is nothing to see. The town also grows a dark red rose it calls black, which is sold everywhere and is mostly greenhouse-grown now. Domestic visitors come in numbers at weekends, and a weekday out of high summer is a completely different and much better town to be in.
Halfeti Iskele, Halfeti, Sanliurfa, Halfeti, Sanliurfa, Turkiye
The town and the quay are open at all hours; boats to the submerged village and to Rumkale run through the day from about April to October and sparsely in winter, leaving when full out of season. Rumkale has its own landing and site hours. Sanliurfa province was affected by the February 2023 earthquakes - check conditions before travelling.