Walking Old Mardin: Birinci Cadde, Abbara Tunnels and Stone Mansions

The entire urban fabric of Old Mardin is built around a single two-kilometre horizontal boulevard clinging halfway up the mountain slope: Birinci Cadde (1st Street). Enter Old Mardin at its western gate, Cumhuriyet Meydanı (Republic Square), where vehicles are filtered out and views open immediately over the plain, and walk slowly eastward toward Savurkapı, turning up and down the stepped side alleys along the way.

What Are the "Abbaras" of Mardin?

As you step off Birinci Cadde into the vertical stone staircases climbing toward the Castle or descending toward the lower bazaar, you will pass through dozens of dark, cool vaulted stone tunnels called abbara (meaning "passageway"). When Mardin's extended families grew in the 15th to 19th centuries and needed more living rooms on the steep slope where land was scarce, stonemasons simply built barrel-vaulted stone arches right over the public street to bridge two houses together, constructing private upper rooms on top of the arch while leaving the street below open as a public passage that stayed cool in 40°C summer heat and dry in winter rain. Some of the most photogenic abbara tunnels run along Kültür Sokak (just above Cumhuriyet Meydanı) and in the lanes around Latifiye and Şehidiye Mosques.

Four Architectural Landmarks Along Birinci Cadde

1. The 1890s Girls' Vocational High School Viewpoint (Olgunlaşma Enstitüsü, right off Cumhuriyet Meydanı): walk along the stone terrace beside the historic school and the Mardin Museum for the single most famous daytime postcard view of Mardin: the fluted minaret of Ulu Cami rising above cascading rows of cubic stone houses with the vast yellow Mesopotamian plain stretching to the horizon.
2. Şehidiye Mosque (1214) and Its Lace-Carved Minaret: halfway along the avenue, stop before the tall cylindrical minaret rebuilt in 1916 by master Armenian and Syriac stonemasons (guided by architect Lole Serkis Gizo) with swirling spiral colonnettes and stone lacework.
3. Şahtana Konağı (The 1690 Historical Post Office / PTT Building): duck down the steps just past the bazaar into the monumental courtyard of the Şahtana family mansion, designed by architect Lole across multiple arcaded stone terraces and now open to visitors as a cultural guesthouse and café.
4. Look for the Door Knockers and Wall Motifs: every historic limestone doorway in Mardin is carved in high relief with pomegranates (abundance), grapevines, cypress trees (eternity) and twin brass knockers (a thick outer ring producing a deep bass note for male visitors, and an inner ring producing a high note for women).