North Kurdistan · Bakur · Medieval & Islamic
Mardin Old Town
A city of honey-coloured stone stepping down a mountainside above the Mesopotamian plain, with madrasas, mosques and churches side by side.
- Period
- 12th–15th century and later
- Place
- Mêrdîn (Mardin)
- Region
- North Kurdistan · Bakur
- Age
- Medieval & Islamic
Mardin is built of a soft local limestone that is easy to carve, which is why its doorways, windows and courtyards are so richly worked. Houses are stacked on terraces so that one roof is the next house's view, and the whole town looks south over the plain.
The Artuqid Great Mosque, the Zinciriye Madrasa of 1385 with its ribbed domes, and the Kasımiye Madrasa stand among old churches and monasteries of the Syriac Christians. Kurds, Arabs, Syriacs and Armenians have all shaped this city.
Chosen and introduced by Aram Mizuri, architect in Erbil