Şanlıurfa (formerly known as Ruha), commonly called Urfa, or known in ancient times as Edessa, is the city that serves as the center of Şanlıurfa Province in Turkey.
The city has an extremely hot and arid climate in summer and experiences cool and humid winters. The province is located at an elevation of 914 meters above sea level. With a population exceeding 2 million, Şanlıurfa is the most populous city in the Southeastern Anatolia Region and, as of 2023, with a median age of 21.2, it is also the province with the most dynamic population in Turkey. Approximately 12 km northeast of the city lies Göbeklitepe, believed to date back to 10,000 BC and known as the oldest known temple in the world. With the discovery of Göbeklitepe, it has been proven that this region was part of the earliest network of human settlements where the agricultural revolution took place and that it has a deeply rooted historical past.
The city, which has been the subject of stories of the Prophet Abraham and King Nimrod in folk tales and religious beliefs and has been described as the City of Prophets and a holy city, is believed to have been founded by Nimrod. Beginning in the 1st millennium BC, the city came under the rule of the Assyrians, Medes, Achaemenids (Persians), Macedonians, the Seleucids—one of the successors of Alexander the Great—the Kingdom of Osroene, and subsequently the Roman and Byzantine Empires. The city held an important place in the history of Christianity and was the center of Syriac culture. Although Urfa gradually lost this characteristic after being conquered by Muslim Arabs in the 7th century, a significant Syriac and Armenian population continued to exist in the city until the early 20th century. The city came under Ottoman rule in 1516 when the Ottoman sultan Selim I defeated the Mamluk State at the Battle of Marj Dabiq, and it remained under uninterrupted Ottoman administration for 400 years until it was occupied first by the British and then by the French in 1919. The city was liberated from occupation on April 11, 1920, and was ceded to Turkey with the Ankara Agreement signed between the Grand National Assembly of Turkey and the French Government on October 20, 1921.
After the proclamation of the Republic, it was made a province in 1924. The name of Urfa Province was changed to Şanlıurfa by Law No. 3020, published in the Official Gazette No. 18439 dated June 22, 1984. In 2016, Şanlıurfa was awarded the Independence Medal by the Grand National Assembly of Turkey in recognition of the heroism shown by its people during the Turkish War of Independence.
Taking into account the “Address-Based Population Registration System Results” for 2011 announced by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK), Şanlıurfa became a metropolitan municipality with Law No. 6360 dated November 12, 2012.
