Diyarbakir Fortress

Rank: UNESCO

Wonder Type: Cultural

Country: Turkey

Best of: Fortification, Ruins

Located on an escarpment of the Upper Tigris River Basin that is part of the so-called Fertile Crescent, the fortified city of Diyarbakir and the landscape around has been an important centre since the Hellenistic period, through the Roman, Sassanid, Byzantine, Islamic and Ottoman times to the present. The site encompasses the Inner castle, known as içkale and including the Amida Mound, and the 5.8 km-long city walls of Diyarbakir with their numerous towers, gates, buttresses, and 63 inscriptions. The site also includes the Hevsel Gardens, a green link between the city and the Tigris that supplied the city with food and water, the Anzele water source and the Ten-Eyed Bridge. [More Details]