Walking Old Urfa: Stone Mansions (Konaklar), Kabaltı Tunnels, Ulu Cami and Reji Church

Stepping two blocks north or west off busy Divanyolu (Atatürk Caddesi) and Haşimiye Square takes you into a silent labyrinth of honey-coloured cut-limestone alleys (sokaklar) spanned by vaulted stone tunnel arches called kabaltı (the Urfa cousin of Mardin's abbara). Because traditional Urfa mansions (Urfa evleri) present windowless stone walls to the street while opening inward onto lush courtyards (hayat) with tall vaulted summer niches (eyvan), bird-houses carved under the eaves (kuş takası) and underground rock cellars (zerzembe), walking this two-hour heritage trail reveals the domestic soul of the city.

Four Landmarks on the Old Urfa Heritage Trail

1. Şanlıurfa Ulu Cami (The Grand Mosque, 1170 to 1175, On Divanyolu Caddesi): built by the Zengid dynasty on the site of the 5th-century Byzantine "Red Church" (St Stephen's Cathedral, named for its red marble columns). Enter through the peaceful spacious courtyard, which still preserves the original Byzantine perimeter walls and columns, to see the unique eight-sided Romanesque-style stone bell tower that was converted in the 12th century into the mosque's minaret (and adopted in 1933 as the city's first Republic Clock Tower), plus the courtyard well where local tradition says the handkerchief carrying the miraculous image of Jesus (the Mandylion of Edessa sent to King Abgar) was dropped.
2. The Traditional Hacıbanlar Evi Culinary Museum & İbrahim Tatlıses Music Museum: walk five minutes west into the restored stone alleys around Yıldız Meydanı and 58 Meydanı to visit two free municipal mansion museums showcasing traditional copper kitchenware, wax tableaux of a Sıra Gecesi and the musical history of Urfa's gazel masters.

3. Reji Church: climbing gently up into the historic Syriac Christian quarter brings you to the monumental three-aisled basalt-and-limestone Church of St Peter and St Paul, built in 1861 over a 6th-century Byzantine church (nicknamed "Reji Church" by locals because the state Tekel tobacco monopoly, Régie, used the building as a tobacco warehouse between 1924 and the 1990s). Today, restored to spotless condition as the Vali Kemalettin Gazezoğlu Cultural Centre, you can walk inside for free to admire its grapevine-carved stone columns and Syriac episcopal tombstones.
4. Fırfırlı Mosque (Formerly the Church of the Twelve Apostles): ten minutes north near Vali Fuat Caddesi, an ornate 19th-century twelve-domed basalt church named "The Whirligig Mosque" by locals because of the wind-vanes (fırfır) once mounted on its towers.