Harran Evleri - Türkiye Seyahat Acentaları Birliği

commonly used especially around Mesopotamia andAegean until B.C. 3000. This kind of architectureexist mainly in two areas in Anatolia. One is on theroad between Urfa and Birecik, the other is betweenUrfa and Akçakale. Harran houses located in thelatter area are covered with brick domes whereashouses in other areas are made with adobe. Thereason why brick was used in Harran houses isthat the soil in this area is suitable to make bricks.Another reason is that this area is arid, hence thereare no trees. Domed houses appear in other areas inthe World; Mosul, Tbilisi, Cyprus, south of Italy, therural area of Puglia which has a shore near Adriatic,Scotland, Spain, Iran, Afghanistan, China and Peru.In Scotland islands, this type of architecture calledBeehive Houses were a popular tradition in 18 thcentury.Protection or Gentrification?In 1979 Harran was declared archeologic andurban protected area and its domed houses weretaken under protection. Henceforth gatheringmaterial from the ruins, any kind of constructionand opening canals were forbidden. In that period960 houses were counted in Harran but today thereare only 500. In 2000 Harran was a candidate tobe UNESCO’s World Heritage Site. In order for fullmembership Culture and Tourism Ministery evaluatedand announced that “Fort and its walls should berepaired, domed houses should be protected andrepaired, concrete buildings around them shouldbe destroyed, living spaces coherent with historicaltexture should be created and landscaping shouldbe done and the area should be made suitable fortourism” under the “Restoration, Landscapingand Protection of the city of Harran” project. It isexpected that this projectwill be concluded in 2014.It is said that after“Harran Inside theWall GentrificationProject” started underHousing DevelopmentAdministration, peoplewere evicted of Harranand intensive work fortransforming the areasuitable for tourism wasdone. Gentrification is asubject of debate. Thussome claim that evictinglocals from Harran willend their natural cultureand others claim thatHarran, which has manysimilarities to Italianvillage Alberobelloincluding domed houses,will be a center ofattraction like Alberobello.Gertrude Bell,nam-ı diğer “Çöl Kraliçesi” dehayran kalmış!Doğu ve Güneydoğu Anadolu çok eskiden beri casusların ilgi alanında. Daha1800’lerde folklorik derlemeler için çalışmaya başlayan ve Urfa’daki Yezidileri ilkgün yüzüne çıkaran, öğrencisi meşhur casus “Arabistanlı Lawrence” (ThomasEdward Lawrence) ile I. Dünya Savaşı’ndan sonra Ortadoğu ve Irak’ın sınırlarınıçizen ve bu yüzden “Çöl Kraliçesi” diye anılan Gertrude Bell gibi. Oxford Arkeolojimezunu ilk kadın olan Bell, bu bölgedeki arkeolojiye çok meraklı olup at ya da deve üzerinde dolaşarak binlercefotoğraf çekmiş. Çok iyi Arapça ve Türkçe bilgisi nedeniyle de İngiliz hükümeti tarafından “ek iş” olarak casusluklagörevlendirilmiş. Zaten o dönemde arkeologlara bu kabil “ek iş” verilmesi de yaygın bir uygulama imiş. Gertude Bell,zaptiyeler eşliğinde gittiği Urfa ve Harran’ı da yakından incelemiş, Harran evlerine de hayran kalmış. Bell, defterine“Yarısında Arapların oturduğu topraktan yapılmış kulübeler topluluğu ile bir höyük dışında ortada bir şehir yok. Amaharikulade ilginç bir yer. ” diye not düşmüş. Çektiği fotoğraflarda da Harran evlerini “arı kovanı stili köy” kategorisindetanımlamış. Newcastle Üniversitesi, Bell’in anıları, mektupları, tuttuğu notları ve çektiği 7000 dolayındaki fotoğrafı arşivlemişve herkesin erişimine açmış: www.gerty.ncl.ac.uk/ .İngiliz Arkeolog Gertrude Bell’in 1909’da Babil’de çekilmiş bir fotoğrafı (en üstte). Harran’da turistler (üstte).A picture of British archeologist Gertrude Bell taken in 1909 at Babil (upper right side). Tourists in Harran (upper side).Gertrude Bell, otherwise known as “The Queen of the Desert” was alsoamazed!East and Southeast has been under the scope of spies for a long time. Such as Lawrence of Arabia (Thomas EdwardLawrence) who began working for folkloric compilation in 1800’s and discovered Yazidis in Urfa and Gertrude Bell who wascalled “The Queen of the Desert” because she defined the borders of Middle East and Iraq after WWI. Bell who is the firstwoman who graduated from Oxford’s Archeology department traveled all over this area on a camel and took thousandsof pictures. Since she spoke Arabic and Turkish perfectly, she was employed as a spy by the English government as a“second job”. In that period, it was a common practice to employ archeologists in these kinds of “second jobs”. GertrudeBell observed Harran and Urfa closely when she went there with gendarmerie and she was fascinated by Harran houses.She wrote in her notebook “There is nothing but a tumulus and a cottage complex where half are resided by Arabs but itis an amazingly interesting place”. She took pictures and categorized Harran Houses as “Beehive style village”. NewcastleUniversity archived Bell’s memories, letters, notebooks and around 7000 pictures she took and opened to public, you cancheck it out at www.gerty.ncl.ac.uk/ . wikipedia.orgTÜRSAB DERGİ | MAYIS 2013 45