Harran Bee Hive Houses, Harran, Urfa, Turkey

This is one of our most exotic accommodations! And it shows how rich Turkey is in terms of culture: Harran (ancient Carrhae) in the vast plains of Northern Mesopotamia, one of the oldest towns of mankind, the place where Abraham lived before he reached Canaan, where Adam and Eve set foot after they were expelled from the Garden of Eden is a valuable archaeological site. Except several Roman monuments, Harran is famous for its ruins of the first Islamic University in the World with the stunning minaret of an old mosque.

Contemporary Harran is a poor village in south of Şanlıurfa, not even 10 km from the Syrian border, inhabited by ethnic Arabs with long-established traditions. Typically families consist of 10-15 children. Local women are tattoed and closed in traditional Bedouin clothes.

By the late 1980s the large plain of Harran had fallen into disuse as the streams of Cüllab and Deysan, its original water-supply had dried up. But the plain is irrigated by the recent Southeastern Anatolia Project (GAP) and is becoming green again. Cotton and rice can now be grown.

Harran’s best are its traditional beehive houses, constructed entirely without wood. The design of these makes them cool inside (essential in this part of the world) and is thought to have been unchanged for at least 3,000 years. Some of them offer basic accommodation, we chose the best of them for you. If you come in hot spring, summer or autumn, you should sleep in the wooden bed in the courtyard, under a night sky which has more stars here than at any other place you have been before...

Click here to view the location of this hotel from space.

BOZKURT HOTEL, Kemaliye, Turkey