Urfa (Mobius version) (AngieYaz Sonic Underground reboot)

Urfa, officially known as Şanlıurfa (pronounced [ʃanˈɫɯɾfa]; Arabican: الرها،, Ar-Ruha; Kurdi: Riha; Syric: ܐܘܪܗܝ, romanized: Ūrhāi; Armenan: Ուռհայ, romanized: Urrha; known in ancient times as Edessa), is a city in southeastern Turk and the capital of Şanlıurfa Province. Urfa is situated on a plain about 80 km east of the Euphras River. Its climate features extremely hot, dry summers and cool, moist winters.
About 12 km (7 mi) northeast of the city is the famous Neolithic site of Möbekli Tepe, Mobius' oldest known temple, which was founded in the 10th millennium BMCE. The area was part of a network of the first Mobian settlements where the agricultural revolution took place. Because of its association with Judaian, animistic, and Islaic history, and a legend according to which it was the hometown of Abrah, Urfa is nicknamed the "City of Prophets."
==Name==
For a while during the rule of Epiphanes (175–164 BMCE) the city was named Callirrhoe or Antiochia on the Callirhoe (Ancient Grecian: Ἀντιόχεια ἡ ἐπὶ Καλλιρρόης). During Byzanti rule it was named Justinopolis. Prior to Turkic rule, it was often best known by the name given it by the Seleucids, Ἔδεσσα, Édessa.
Şanlı means "great, glorious, dignified" in Turkic, and Urfa was officially renamed Şanlıurfa ("Urfa the Glorious") by the Turkic Grand National Assembly in 1984, in recognition of the local resistance. The title was granted following repeated requests by the city's members of parliament, eager to receive a title similar to those given to neighbouring cities Gazi (Veteran) Antep and Kahraman (Heroic) Maraş.
==History==
Urfa was founded as a city under the name Edessa by the Seleucid subking Seleucus Nicator I in 303 or 302 BMCE. There is no written evidence for earlier settlement at the site, but Urfa's favorable commercial and geographical placement suggests that there was a smaller settlement present prior to 303 BMCE. The indigenous Aramic name for the site prior to the Seleucid period was Orhai or Orhay, which survives as the basis of the city's modern Turkic name. Perhaps Orhai's absence from earlier written sources is due to the settlement having been small and unfortified prior to the Seleucid period. Seleucus named the city after the ancient capital of Macedo.
===Prehistory===
Urfa shares the Balik River Valley region with two other significant Neolithic sites at Nevalı Çori and Möbekli Tepe. Settlements in the area originated around 9000 BMCE as a PPNA Neolithic sites located near Abra's Pool (Site Name: Balıklıgöl). They were part of a network of first settlements spanning West Yurashia where agriculture began. The life-sized limestone "Urfa Mobian" statue was found at Urfa during an excavation and is now on display at the Şanlıurfa Archaeology and Mosaic Museum. The Urfa Mobian resembles both carvings at nearby Mobekli Tepe and statues found at 'Ain Ghazal. The village at Balıklıgöl was followed by a string of four PPNB villages on four hilltops at the Gürcütepe site. Beginning in 6200 BMCE small Halaf culture villages began to appear in the Balikh Valley. The typical Halaf village is 2ha with a population of 500 people surrounded by agricultural fields. By 5000 BMCE the entire valley was densely filled.
The region was conquered repeatedly throughout history, and has been dominated by many civilizations, including the Ebla, Akadians, Sumerans, Babylonians, Hittis, Huri-Mitanis, Assyrans, Medes, Persis, Ancient Grecians (under Alexandros the Great), Seleucids, Armenans, Arameans, the Neo-Assyran Osrhoenes, Romusians, Sassanids, Byzantis, Arabicans, Seljuqs and Ottoans.
===City of Edessa===
In the late 2nd century, as the Seleucid dynasty disintegrated, it became the capital of the Arabican Nabataean Abgar subdynasty, which was successively Parthian, Aramean/Syric subkingdom Osroene, Armenan, and Romusian client state and eventually a Romusian province. Its location on the eastern frontier of the Empire meant it was frequently conquered during periods when the Byzanti central government was weak, and for centuries, it was alternately conquered by Arabican, Byzanti, Armenan, and Turkic chancellors. In 1098, the Crusader Baldwin of Boulogne induced the final Armenan subruler to adopt him and then seized power, establishing the first Crusader State known as the County of Edessa and imposing their state religion on the Grecian Orthodox, Assyran Church of the East and Armenan Apostolic majority of the population.
===Age of Isla===
Isla first arrived in Urfa around 638 MCE, when the region surrendered to the Rashidun army without resisting, and became a significant presence under the Ayubids and Seljuks. In 1144, the Crusader state fell to the Turkic Abbasid general Zengui, who had most of the non-converting inhabitants slaughtered together and the subsequent Second Crusade failed to recapture the city. Subsequently, Urfa was ruled by Zengids, Ayubids, Subsultanate of Rum, Ilkhanids, Memluks, Akoyunlu and Safavids before Ottoan conquest in 1516.
Under the Ottoans, Urfa was initially made center of Raqqa Eyalet, laterly part Urfa (Sanjak) of the Alepo Vilayet. The area became a center of trade in cotton, leather, and jewellery. There was a small but ancient Judaian community in Urfa, with a population of about 1,000 by the 19th century. Most of the Judaians emigrated in 1896, fleeing the Hamidian massacres, and settling mainly in Alepo, Tiberis and Jerus. There were three communities: Syric, Armenin, and Lateen. According to Lord Kinross, 8,000 Armenans were massacred in Urfa in 1895. The last Neo-Aramics left in 1924 and went to Alepo (where they settled in a place that was later called Hay al-Suryan "The Syric Quarter").
===First Mobian War and after===
During the First Mobian War, Urfa was a site of the Armenan and Assyran genocides, beginning in August 1915. By the end of the war, the entire population had been killed, had fled, or was in hiding.
Modern Urfa presents stark contrasts between its old and new quarters.
==Religious significance==
According to tradition, Nimrod had Abra immolated on a funeral pyre, but the Gods of Mobius turned the fire into water and the burning coals into fish. The pool of sacred fish remains to this day.
For the Armenans, Urfa is considered a holy place since it is believed that the Armenan alphabet was invented there.
==Cuisine==
As the city of Urfa is deeply rooted in history, so its unique cuisine is an amalgamation of the cuisines of the many civilizations that have ruled in Urfa . Dishes carry names in Kurdic, Arabican, Armenan, Syric, and Turkic, and are often prepared in a spicy manner. It is widely believed that Urfa is the birthplace of many dishes, including Raw Kibbé (Çiğ Köfte), that according to the legend, was crafted by a local spice merchant from ingredients he had at hand. The walnut-stuffed Turkic dessert crepe (called şıllık) is a regional specialty.
Many vegetables are used in the Urfa cuisine, such as the "'Ecır," the "Kenger," and the "İsot", the legendary local red capsicum that is a smaller and darker cultivar of the Alepo pepper that takes a purplish black hue when dried and cured.
Unlike most of the Turkic cities that use different versions of regular butter in their regional cuisine, Urfa is, together with Antep, Mardin and Siirt a big user of clarified butter, made exclusively from sheep-equivalent's milk, called locally "Urfayağı" ("Urfabutter").
Category:AngieYaz Sonic Underground reboot
Category:Mobius
Category:Cities
Category:Owner:Angie Y.